The Marmot’s Hole

North Korean defectors and their human rights is a passion for me - some would say an obsession. The main targets of my rancor are the governments of South Korea and China, and of course North Korea - but that should go without saying. It doesn’t mean I agree with everything the US does, though. Today there was a good article in the Korea Times by Reuben Staines about South Korean activists who help defectors, and are pressuring their government to do more to get more people safely out of China, where many live in fear of deportation and worse. It’s worth reading in full, and it is also encouraging to see the Korea Times actually engage in some real reporting. Long may these 54th anniversary special feature articles keep coming! I will give just a quote from the piece:

In response to the events of recent weeks, the government may be beginning to take a more active role. It is reportedly reviewing the situation in China and will establish a task force to oversee defector issues

But Kim Bum-soo, director of international affairs at the CNKR, believes a more complete solution needs to be developed.

“The South Korean government urgently needs to sit down with related NGOs to work out a comprehensive way of helping these refugees,?????????? he urged. “It?????s inevitable that more and more of them will continue trying to come to Seoul.??????????

As the title of this entry suggests, however, my focus today is not on getting the defectors into Korea, but rather what happens to them after they arrive. If you do a google on Hanawon (?????????), you will find plenty of stories about this quarantined establishment for resettlement training of North Korean defectors. With unemployment defectors at near 30%, much higher than the national average, there are often articles in print and in the media (such as last month’s KBS story on defectors that I blogged) saying that there are problems with Hanawon education. These are certainly there, and need to be looked at.

Last week I heard from a defector lady who has been here for a number of years that there is corruption at Hanawon. I cannot substantiate this and it hasn’t been reported in the wider press, so I submit it under the rubric of ‘rumour’. Every defector is given 600,000 won spending money while at Hanawon, and I understand that they are taken on shopping trips to learn about the value of money and capitalism etc. However, to prevent the defectors from splurging all the cash at once, it is not given to them directly, but entrusted to a Hanawon staff member who accompanies them on their trips. I believe the money may be in the form of a credit card. This defector lady told me that the Hanawon staff members routinely use these cards to buy things for themselves. The defectors do not speak out about this for fear of some kind of blowback. Even worse, upon leaving Hanawon , defectors are guarded and accompanied by a police escort for a time, and these are also said to be using defectors’ money for themselves. I guess they are easy targets. The KBS program last month also showed how many defectors are swindled out of their money by crafty South Korean conmen, and Marmot blogged about the poor North Korean man who was bilked of his settlement money by a male lover who left him.

I remember the surprise and disappointment I felt when, through watching AFKN TV in the 90s, I learned that soldiers on bases stole from each other. None of this “we’re all in this thing together” cameraderie. How much more was I disappointed to learn that those who are supposed to be helping newly arrived defectors and providing a nurturing environment for them are actually fleecing them!