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ROK to set public sector employment quota for DPRK defectors

Monday, January 31st, 2011

According to the Choson Ilbo:

The government will set a 1-percent quota for North Korean defectors in administrative assistant jobs at public agencies, it said Thursday. The government made the decision on the assumption that about 3,000 North Koreans arrive in South Korea on average every year who have a hard time adapting to their new environment partly due to difficulties finding jobs.

Some 200 North Korean defectors are expected to be employed as administrative assistants this year, given that the total hired by the central and local governments is about 20,000 annually.

A Ministry of Public Administration and Security spokesman said the government “decided to take the lead in hiring North Korean defectors to raise awareness of them and encourage private companies to follow suit.”

The ministry plans to ask former and current public servants to serve as mentors for defectors and give them a training course through which they can develop their skills.

According to the ministry, the total number of defectors stood at 7,687 in 2005 and is expected to exceed the 30,000 mark in 2013.

Read the full story here:
1% of Public-Sector Jobs to Go to N.Korean Defectors
Choson Ilbo
1/28/2010

Posted in Emigration, South Korea | 1 Comment »

On Philippine-DPRK relations

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Is there a large number of “talbukja,” or North Korean defectors, living in the Philippines?

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, there are. And aside from the country and South Korea, the other Asian nations that are sympathetic to refugees from North Korea include China, Japan, Russia, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States.

Asked for comment, the Department of Foreign Affairs told the Philippine Daily Inquirer it was “not aware of any significant number of North Korean refugees in the country.”

But DFA spokesman J. Eduardo Malaya said the government quietly permits the transit of North Korean nationals destined for a third country “only for humanitarian reasons.”

Malaya pointed out that generally, “North Korean nationals are welcome to visit our country.”

“The Philippines has diplomatic relations with North Korea and maintains cordial relations with its government and people,” he noted.

Another Filipino diplomat said Manila “has been sympathetic to defectors from North Korea. We’re doing it out of compassion, like the way we treated Vietnamese refugees in the past.”

The same source, who asked not to be named, described as “confidential” the North Korean defectors issue.

A check with the Bureau of Immigration said there were no North Koreans legally staying in the country.

But some BI old timers claimed an undisclosed number of North Korean refugees had “blended into the South Korean community” here.

On January 1, 2010, 22 North Korean seafarers reportedly abandoned the 3,461-ton MV Nam Yang 8 after the cargo ship listed dangerously and ran aground off Claveria town in Cagayan.

The Associated Press reported that Claveria folk helped the sailors obtain police assistance.

It also said immigration authorities checked if the North Koreans had required work permits.

Sometime in mid-March 2002, China sent 25 North Korean asylum seekers to Manila.

Then National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the visitors could stay for three days before heading to South Korea.

The North Koreans had said they might be killed if sent back, and some said they carried rat poison to kill themselves if they were repatriated.

In June 2001, seven members of a North Korean family sought refuge in a United Nations-attached office in Beijing. After a four-day wait, they were allowed to leave for South Korea via Singapore and the Philippines.

In March 1997, the Chinese government defused a diplomatic crisis by spiriting Hwang Jang-yop, a senior North Korean defector, out of Beijing and sent him by a special plane to Manila.

Hwang arrived at the Clark Special Economic Zone aboard a China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 that had carried him and three escorts from the south China port of Xiamen. He was later given safe passage to an undisclosed location in South Korea.

Seoul also calls North Korean defectors “saeteomin,” or people of the new land, and “bukhanitalchumin,” or residents who renounced North Korea.

In 2000, the Philippines and North Korea finally established diplomatic relations after more than 20 years of negotiations.

Seven years later, they forged another agreement aimed at boosting diplomatic ties between the two Asian states.

Manila deals with Pyongyang “through the Philippine embassy in Beijing, which covers North Korea affairs,” according to Malaya.

“There are only eight Filipinos based in North Korea, all of whom are connected with United Nations agencies, international non-government organizations, and a foreign tobacco company,” he disclosed.

Malaya expressed hope “peace and stability in the Korean peninsula will take deeper roots and such requires continuing dialogue among countries in our region, including North Korea.”

A series of acts of aggression by North Korea have raised tensions on the Korean peninsula to boiling point, said Agence France-Presse.

In March, Seoul accused Pyongyang of sinking one of its naval corvettes on with the loss of all 46 hands near the North Korean border.

Last November, North Korean troops fired artillery shells into South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island, killing four and injuring around 20 on a border island and prompting an exchange of fire with southern troops.

Pyongyang had warned it may carry out another atomic test to bolster the status of its leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un as it also vowed readiness for what it called a “sacred war” using its nuclear weapons.

North Korea, tagged regional “pest” by Time magazine, later called for unconditional talks to ease tensions.

But South Korea, which wants an apology after North Korea’s deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong, dismissed it as propaganda and an empty gesture.

Read the full story here:

Philippines—Is there a large number of “talbukja,” or North Korean defectors, living in the Philippines?

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, there are. And aside from the country and South Korea, the other Asian nations that are sympathetic to refugees from North Korea include China, Japan, Russia, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States.

Asked for comment, the Department of Foreign Affairs told the Philippine Daily Inquirer it was “not aware of any significant number of North Korean refugees in the country.”

But DFA spokesman J. Eduardo Malaya said the government quietly permits the transit of North Korean nationals destined for a third country “only for humanitarian reasons.”

Malaya pointed out that generally, “North Korean nationals are welcome to visit our country.”

“The Philippines has diplomatic relations with North Korea and maintains cordial relations with its government and people,” he noted.

Another Filipino diplomat said Manila “has been sympathetic to defectors from North Korea. We’re doing it out of compassion, like the way we treated Vietnamese refugees in the past.”

The same source, who asked not to be named, described as “confidential” the North Korean defectors issue.

A check with the Bureau of Immigration said there were no North Koreans legally staying in the country.

But some BI old timers claimed an undisclosed number of North Korean refugees had “blended into the South Korean community” here.

On January 1, 2010, 22 North Korean seafarers reportedly abandoned the 3,461-ton MV Nam Yang 8 after the cargo ship listed dangerously and ran aground off Claveria town in Cagayan.

The Associated Press reported that Claveria folk helped the sailors obtain police assistance.

It also said immigration authorities checked if the North Koreans had required work permits.

Sometime in mid-March 2002, China sent 25 North Korean asylum seekers to Manila.

Then National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the visitors could stay for three days before heading to South Korea.

The North Koreans had said they might be killed if sent back, and some said they carried rat poison to kill themselves if they were repatriated.

In June 2001, seven members of a North Korean family sought refuge in a United Nations-attached office in Beijing. After a four-day wait, they were allowed to leave for South Korea via Singapore and the Philippines.

In March 1997, the Chinese government defused a diplomatic crisis by spiriting Hwang Jang-yop, a senior North Korean defector, out of Beijing and sent him by a special plane to Manila.

Hwang arrived at the Clark Special Economic Zone aboard a China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 that had carried him and three escorts from the south China port of Xiamen. He was later given safe passage to an undisclosed location in South Korea.

Seoul also calls North Korean defectors “saeteomin,” or people of the new land, and “bukhanitalchumin,” or residents who renounced North Korea.

In 2000, the Philippines and North Korea finally established diplomatic relations after more than 20 years of negotiations.

Seven years later, they forged another agreement aimed at boosting diplomatic ties between the two Asian states.

Manila deals with Pyongyang “through the Philippine embassy in Beijing, which covers North Korea affairs,” according to Malaya.

“There are only eight Filipinos based in North Korea, all of whom are connected with United Nations agencies, international non-government organizations, and a foreign tobacco company,” he disclosed.

Malaya expressed hope “peace and stability in the Korean peninsula will take deeper roots and such requires continuing dialogue among countries in our region, including North Korea.”

Read the full story here:
Are there North Korean defectors in the Philippines?
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Jerry E. Esplanada
1/16/2011

Posted in Emigration | Comments Closed

Troubling news of DPRK crackdown

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

According to the Choson Ilbo:

The North Korean regime appears to have started a new reign of terror to consolidate the succession of leader Kim Jong-il’s son Jong-un.

The South Korean government and a North Korean source on Wednesday said public executions more than tripled last year. And increasing numbers of North Koreans have been killed trying to cross the Apnok (or Yalu) or Duman (or Tumen) River after the regime gave a shoot-to-kill order. The party and military, meanwhile, are engulfed in a whirlwind of purges, observers believe.

Public Executions

A diplomatic source familiar with North Korean affairs Wednesday said there were 60 confirmed public executions in the North last year, more than triple the number of 2009. “Since last year, the regime has put a notice on bulletin boards warning that those who use Chinese-made mobile phones or illegally circulate dollars face public execution, the source said.

Another source familiar with North Korean affairs said, “It’s rumored that Kim Jong-un has called for ‘gunshots across the country.’ Kim Jong-il did exactly the same thing when he took power.”

Jang Se-yul of the North Korean People’s Liberation Front, a group of former North Korean soldiers and officers who defected to South Korea, said, “In Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province alone last year, at least six people were executed publicly on charges of human trafficking and robbery. People are executed publicly for crimes that would have sent them to prison for just a few years in the past.”

“The number of public executions had gradually dwindled in the North since the famine of the late 1990s,” said International security ambassador Nam Joo-hong. “But since last year, the regime has apparently relied increasingly on public executions to tighten control in the aftermath of the botched currency reform and complaints about the hereditary succession.”

‘Shoot-to-Kill’ Order Against Defectors

Observers believe the regime has issued a shoot-to-kill order against defectors. According to a high-level source in the Changbai region in the Chinese province of Jilin, five North Koreans were shot dead and two others wounded by North Korean border guards on the Chinese side of the border after they crossed the Apnok River on Dec. 14.

And the military is being purged of unreliable elements. Quoting an internal North Korean source last Saturday, Free North Korea Radio, a shortwave broadcaster in the South, said the number of inmates has soared at a labor camp under the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces in North Hamgyong Province. It said many of the inmates are former army generals who have been purged by Kim Jong-un.

The regime’s determination to tighten control is also reflected in the Workers Party’s new regulations, the first for 30 years. The regime recently added a new clause calling for all party members to abide by a new regulation requiring them “to oppose and fight against anti-socialist trends.”

A South Korean intelligence official said the phrase refers to elements of capitalism that have flowed in from South Korea. “The regime has paved the way to publicly execute even people who watch South Korean soap operas or dress in South Korean style, branding them as anti-party elements,” he said.

The Daily NK also reports some personnel changes:

North Korea has been replacing local Party officials with a younger generation since the Chosun Workers’ Party Delegates’ Conference on September 28th, in preparation for Kim Jong Eun’s ascent to power.

In particular, North Korea replaced a great many officials in November and December of last year, a source from Chongjin has revealed, bringing in new provincial, municipal, and district institution officials and industrial complex Party committee members to replace those over 60 with people in their 30s and 40s.

The source commented, “After each Party committee’s annual evaluation meeting, the replacement of officials took place,” continuing, “For the stated purpose of raising the quality of the Party to make it a ‘young, vigorous, and ambitious party’, they are replacing aged officials with younger ones. Thus, recently some officials that people wouldn’t know if they tripped over them have been appearing.”

The policy apparently stems from Kim Jong Il, who is pushing the succession process forward relatively swiftly for reasons said to include his own health and North Korea’s external political environment. Of course, it is also a strategic move on the part of Kim Jong Il, to strengthen unity around Kim Jong Eun by bringing in new blood which will henceforth owe a debt of gratitude to him.

According to the source, Party committees organized a one-month short course for such young officials in October of last year, during which instructors dispatched from Pyongyang or the provincial Party center promoted the idea that youth, vigor and ambition, alongside iron loyalty to the dictator, would be necessary tenets of future party operations.

According to the source, officials emphasized during the lecture course, “Obeying Youth Captain Kim Jong Eun and working well are the kind of faithful actions which repay the trust we receive from the General,” and, “Officials need to strengthen the Party, following on from their predecessors.”

Adding detail to the Party reshuffling; the source said that graduates of Communist Colleges older than 60 are being relieved of their positions, and graduates of Kim Il Sung Senior Party College are filling the ranks in behind.

Those who have at least two-year career as secretary of a Party cell can enter a Communist College, a provincial entity managed by the provincial committee of the Party; after graduation they can work on a provincial committee of the Party.

However, Kim Il Sung Senior Party College, the so-called Central Party College, is a more elite institution in Pyongyang charged with fostering the Party’s core workers; it admits officials with a good family background who have been working for more than two years on a provincial committee.

According to North Korean defectors, once one graduates from Central Party College, one is on the road to a comfortable life. For example, in the words of one defector with experience of the system, any North Korean official with access to a vehicle is almost certain to have graduated from Central Party College.

Accordingly, using North Hamkyung Province as an example, people in ‘powerful’ departments like factory guidance units, the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Guidance Department of North Hamkyung Province Party Committee, the Ministry of Administration, factory and industrial complex Party committees (Guidance Department, Officials Department, Propaganda and Agitation Department, Party Member Registration Department and General Affairs Department) have been or are being replaced with graduates from the Central Party School.

Those who are being eased out are either destined for less powerful departments, the source said, citing the Party Inspections Committee or Labor Organization Department, or are being completely removed.

Quoting a common phrase relating to the holding of power, the source said that those about to be replaced are full of regret, saying, “If I had known this would happen, I would have done more to prepare for my future when I had glue on my hands.”

A similar process of replacing officials was conducted in the 1980s, prior to Kim Jong Il’s coming to power. In addition to which, this fits in with the overall propaganda rhetoric, which is justifying Kim Jong Eun’s succession by emphasizing youth and his regime’s concomitant ability to apply technology (CNC etc.) to solve North Korea’s chronic economic shortcomings.

The usual caveats apply.

Read the full story here:
N.Korean Regime Intensifies ‘Reign of Terror’
Choson Ilbo
1/13/2010

Youth, Vigor, Ambition, and Loyalty
Daily NK
Im Jeong Jin
1-12-2011

Posted in Black markets, Emigration, Kim Jong Un, Political economy | 1 Comment »

DPRK trying to crack down on defections

Friday, December 24th, 2010

According to the Daily NK:

North Korea’s National Security Agency (NSA) is trying to use smugglers to crack down on defectors, an inside source has revealed to The Daily NK.

The source from Yangkang Province told a Daily NK reporter on Tuesday, “The Yangkang provincial NSA office has ordered smugglers investigated recently to report those who cross the river for the purpose of going to South Korea.”

In many border regions, smugglers play the role of brokers in river-crossing defections. As of late November this year, the commission earned by a smuggler for facilitating a river crossing was about 4000 to 6000 Yuan per person. For 500 to 1000 Yuan, the smugglers were willing to convey goods back across the Yalu River, too.

The source said, “About two hundred people convicted of smuggling were called in by the NSA,” explaining that they were told, “If they report river crossers to the NSA, the NSA promised to guarantee their smuggling activities.”

The reason for the new policy, the source also explained, is that “while the government keeps strengthening border controls and orders punishment for river crossers, the number of defections is not decreasing, so they have formulated a new plan. It has met with modest early success; on December 16th, three people who were crossing the Yalu River from Huchang to Changbai (China) were arrested by the NSA.”

However, the source pointed out, “Since some smugglers are cooperating with the NSA now, the number of river crossers might decrease for a while, but it will come back to normal. Those smugglers who report to the NSA will lose customers, and those who don’t will have more.”

Read the full story here:
Smugglers Told to Shop Defectors
Daily NK
Kang Mi Jin
12/24/2010

Posted in Black markets, Emigration, Ministry of State Security (MPSS, NSA, SSD) | Comments Closed

North Koreans reportedly enjoy US films

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

Young North Koreans apparently prefer American soaps and films to South Korean ones, and they can now watch both easily. A defector who gave his name as Kim (43) and used to sell TV sets in the North said, “Used color TVs imported from China have both PAL and NTSC options, so there’s no problem receiving South Korean TV signals,” even in remote South Hamgyong Province.

North Korea and China use the PAL format to receive TV signals, while South Korea and Japan use the NTSC format. Some European countries and the Middle East favor SECAM. Most models manufactured after the 1990s allow users to shift formats.

“In South Hamgyong Province, only a few households are able to capture TV signals, but reception is quite good in Hwanghae or South Pyongan provinces,” Kim said. “People there look forward to the evenings when dramas are broadcast.” He said North Koreans also enjoy watching news and current events programs as well and power their TVs with their car batteries during power outages.

Another defector surnamed Yoo (40), who used to sell DVDs in the North and came to South Korea late last year, said North Koreans have grown tired of South Korean TV soaps with their stereotypical plots. “Nowadays, ‘Rambo 4,’ ‘007 Casino Royale,’ and other American action films or TV dramas like ‘Prison Break’ are popular,” she added.

According to Yoo, South Korean TV soaps like “Winter Sonata,” “All In” or “Autumn in My Heart” were popular in the early 2000s, while “Jewel in the Palace” and other historical dramas grew popular in the late 2000s. Recently, action movies are gaining more attention.

North Koreans also prefer American movies to Korean ones. “Practically everyone knows ‘Titanic.'” The movie classic “Gone with the Wind” is popular among upper-class North Koreans in Pyongyang, while young people enjoy action films. “DVDs of American movies or TV dramas fetched the highest prices,” she said. “But now USBs with American TV programs are more popular than DVDs.”

Additional information:
1. Titanic is rumored to have been screened in Pyongyang cinemas.

2. Also, Tom and Jerry was shown on North Korean television in the 1980s. See here and here.

3. We have heard conflicting reports about just how tolerant the North Korean government is of foreign films.

Read the full story here:
N.Korean TV Viewers Favor American Shows
Choson Ilbo
12/18/2010

Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Economic reform, Emigration, Film, South Korea, Television | 7 Comments »

DPRK still not happy about propaganda leaflets from ROK

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

UPDATE 2: And also on Monday the South Korean government lifted the ban on South Koreans visiting the Kaesong Industrial Zone.

UPDATE 1: As of Monday, the DPRK has not retaliated against either the balloons or the ROK naval drill that took place on Yonpyong. As a precaution, the ROK government has prevented South Korean workers from entering the Kaesong Zone.

ORIGINAL POST: For several years activists in the ROK have periodically floated balloons across the DMZ which contain cash, propaganda leaflets, and even radios. You can learn yet more about the leaflets here.

The DPRK has complained about these balloons on many occasions, and has at least twice threatened to cut off access to the Kaesong Industial Zone in retaliation. The first time was in November 2008. The second time was in May 2010.

Well last weekend activists launched balloons from Yonpyong Island (recently shelled by the DPRK):

North Korea now claims it will fire at the South Korean islands used to launch these balloons. According to Yonhap:

North Korea lashed out Friday at South Korea for allowing anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to be sent across their border, as activists vowed to send more from a South Korean island devastated by North Korean shelling last month.

The leaflets, often mixed with U.S. dollar bills, DVDs and radios, are sent in giant balloons across the 4-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas.

The North’s official Web site, Uriminzokkiri, said the bills are “nothing more than waste paper” and that the leaflets do little to undermine the pride of its people in the communist regime.

“Such confrontational madness will only snap up the extraordinary alarm and ire of our army and people,” it said in a commentary.

North Korea’s military has warned it would shell South Korean sites used to send propaganda leaflets and broadcasts. On Nov. 23, the North shelled the western South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two civilians in its first direct attack on an inhabited region in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea cited the South’s live-fire drills that day as a reason for its shelling, saying its territorial waters were infringed upon. The South denies shooting toward the North.

In a related development, a group of North Korean defectors have entered Yeonpyeong Island this week and are preparing to send about 200,000 leaflets denigrating the North Korean leadership.

Park Sang-hak, head of Fighters for Free North Korea, told Yonhap News Agency that should wind conditions turn favorable, his group will send the leaflets as early as Saturday.

The South Korean military plans to hold one day of live-fire exercises on Yeonpyeong between Saturday and Tuesday despite the North’s threat of retaliation. North Korea says any shells fired from Yeonpyeong are bound to violate its waters because it does not respect the Yellow Sea border drawn by a U.S. general at the end of the Korean War, which ended in a truce.

In an act of support for the propaganda activities, Shin Ji-ho, a ruling party member, told Yonhap that he and other legislators plan to send 100,000 leaflets in “truth balloons” on Jan. 8, the date North Korea’s 20-something heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, was born.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea slams S. Korea over propaganda leaflets as activists vow to send more
Yonhap
Sam Kim
12/17/2010

Posted in Emigration, South Korea | Comments Closed

DPRK defectors face 9% unemployment rate in ROK

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

According to KBS:

A new survey shows that more than nine percent of North Korean escapees living in South Korea are unemployed and are suffering from serious financial difficulties.

According to a survey of 12-hundred North Korean escapees between the ages of 20 and 60, 42-point-six percent of respondents were economically active, while nine-point-two percent of those who are economically active were unemployed.

Some 37 percent of the respondents cited physical problems as a reason for their lack of a job. More than 24 percent said they chose to remain unemployed in order to raise their children.

The survey was conducted by an organization supporting North Korean escapees.

It would have been helpful if the results were broken down by gender as well as a few other control variables.

Read the full story here:
Survey: 9% of NK Escapees are Unemployed
KBS
12/16/2010

Posted in Emigration, Labor conditions/wages, South Korea | 2 Comments »

DPRK restaurant manager allegedly defects

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

UPDATE (1/3/2011): According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korea has shut down a restaurant in Kathmandu and recalled all of its staff after the manager absconded with the takings in late November.

South Koreans in Kathmandu said the 13 to 15 North Korean staff of the Kumgangsan restaurant were recalled to the North right after the manager fled.

But the Kathmandu branch of the Pyongyang Okryugwan restaurant chain, which had been misidentified as the one where the manager worked, is still in business in a back alley about 1 km across the street from Kumgangsan.

Most South Korean tourists and about 400 expats in Kathmandu have stopped going to the restaurant since the South Korean Embassy in Nepal wrote to expats and tour operators asking them to refrain from visiting North Korean restaurants after the North’s torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan in March last year.

“Please refrain from visiting North Korean restaurants that are becoming sources of funds for the Kim Jong-il regime. Anyone who has visited such restaurants will be subject to investigation on charges of violating the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Law and the National Security Law upon returning home,” the embassy warned in an email.

A South Korean resident said the Kumgangsan and Okryugwan restaurants had depended largely on South Korean customers, so their sales must have dwindled.

The Kumgangsan manager, identified as Yang, reportedly came to South Korea via India. Nepalese police released two South Koreans who were arrested after North Korea accused them of kidnapping him and were deported on charges of violating immigration law.

UPDATE (12/23/2010): According to the AFP, the Nepalese have released the two South Koreans who allegedly assisted the North Korean to defect.

Nepal has released two South Koreans held for their alleged involvement in the case of a missing North Korean, the South’s foreign ministry said Thursday.

The two men, who live in Nepal, were ordered to leave the country within 15 days after being freed, the ministry said.

Yonhap news agency said the pair were accused of helping a North Korean surnamed Yang flee the Himalayan nation across the border into India, after which he defected to the South.

A local media report in the Himalayan country had said they were arrested following pressure from Pyongyang’s embassy in Kathmandu, which wanted them charged with kidnapping Yang.

South Korean newspapers have said Yang was the manager of the local franchise of an overseas restaurant chain operated by the North.

The franchises are an important source of scarce foreign currency for the cash-strapped regime.

Some 20,000 North Koreans have fled their homeland and arrived in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 war, almost always through a third country.

UPDATE (12/15/2010): According to the Choson Ilbo the defector left with some substantial funds from the DPRK restaurant in which he worked.

ORIGINAL POST (12/14/2010): According to the Choson Ilbo:

A North Korean who went missing in Nepal recently had been the manager of a North Korean restaurant there, it emerged on Monday.

A diplomatic source said the man, identified as Yang, managed the Kathmandu branch of the Pyongyang Okryugwan restaurant chain and had been there for about a year. It seems he defected and is believed to be in New Delhi, India now.

Overseas branches of Okryugwan are a main source of hard currency for North Korea, and the regime carefully selects managers. The North is apparently very sensitive about Yang’s defection, according to South Korean intelligence, because he made off with a stash of dollars that were supposed to be sent to the North.

The North Korean Embassy has asked the Nepali authorities to investigate two South Koreans identified as Choi and Sun who it says had friendly ties with Yang and kidnapped him. Choi and Sun have been arrested, and South Korean Embassy officials are negotiating for their release.

Read the full story here:
N.Korean Restaurant Manager Absconds from Nepal
Choson Ilbo
12/14/2010

Posted in Emigration, Emigration statistics, Finance, Restaurants | 1 Comment »

DPRK defectors in China

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Andrei Lankov writes in the Korea Times:

Nowadays, there are between 20,000 and 30,000 North Koreans hiding in China, and roughly three quarters of them are women.

But what are they doing there? Of course, the major motivation behind their decision to flee was the disastrous economic situation in North Korea.

In the late 1990s, the refugees fled a very real threat of starving to death, while nowadays it is most likely that destitution and malnutrition drive them across the border. For men it is not so easy to move, since for them the stakes are higher. If caught, men are likely to face greater problems than women.

But there is another reason: large-scale trafficking of women (well, as will be explained later, the present author is somewhat wary about using the word “trafficking” to describe this phenomena).

Once a North Korean woman finds herself in China, she soon realizes that without ability to speak at least some Chinese, and with police constantly on alert against refugees, one of the best survival strategies available for her is to become a “live-in” partner of some local Chinese man.

The patterns differ greatly. In some cases, women are kidnapped or lured by false promises and then sold to Chinese husbands who might be very abusive and cruel. In some other cases, women make their own choice, often after spending years in China and acquiring a good command of the language as well as a good understanding of the situation.

The first is human trafficking, pure and simple. The second can hardly be described as anything but a normal marriage. But it seems that most cases lie somewhere between these two extremes.

When the border controls nearly collapsed in 1998-99, cross-border match-making services began to develop. The brides are in great demand in the poorer rural parts of northeast China. Similar problems are well-known in the South Korean countryside, too.

Single men cannot find wives since most girls go to cities and few of them would consider a farmer as a suitable husband anyway.

In the case of South Korea such a phenomenon recently produced an explosive growth in the number of the interracial marriages, with Korean farmers marrying Vietnamese and Chinese girls. In the case of China, the illegal migrants from the North are a substitute.

In some cases, a desperate bachelor pays mobsters or their intermediaries to get a wife whom he might eventually keep under house arrest, for fear that the kidnapped woman might escape.

However, more frequently families use the intricate network of inter-border connections to arrange a bride. Often the prospective wife is located on the other side of the border, but it is not a major obstacle as long as people have some cash to pay North Korean border guards.

Thus, many young Korean women enter the game willingly, even if their expectations about their future might be overly optimistic as they are often misled.

Frankly, I have serious problems with describing this particular type of arrangement as “human trafficking.” Our modern sensitivities might indeed be offended by an idea of a woman marrying somebody whom she has never seen, purely on assumption this is the surest way to guarantee her livelihood.

However, this is how nearly all marriages were concluded a century ago. The idea of romantic love union based on the mutual attraction is a novelty, invented in the 19th century Europe and still unusual in poorer parts of the world.

After all, many women get what they want: a stable life, free from hunger. They would never have such a life “under the fatherly care of the Dear Leader.”

However, these women are illegal immigrants and they have no way to protect themselves if the relationship turns abusive. If they escape, they are very likely to be caught by mobsters and sold again, or caught by police and extradited back to their home country (god knows what is worse).

However, it is also important and telling that a large number of such women, if they are indeed deported to the North to spend some time in jail there, use the first opportunity to come back to China in order to reunite with their husbands again.

Still, the North Korean authorities make sure that all women who are caught pregnant have abortions: perhaps, on the grounds of habitual racism, so common in the Kim Jong-il’s kingdom.

Many Chinese husbands try hard to do something about their Korean wives’ official standing. If the husbands are willing to contribute enough resources, sooner or later, the women acquire Chinese Resident Identity Card where they are registered as China-born ethnic Koreans.

Such an ID costs a lot in bribes to officials, but once it is secured the former hapless refugee becomes a proud citizen of the People’s Republic of China.

It is also important that children born out of such unions usually get the Chinese Resident Identity Card as well. This means that they will go to the Chinese schools and receive a standard education in Korean and/or Chinese.

However, apart from this cross-border movement of brides there is trafficking pure and simple. The Chinese sex industry is controlled and restricted, but exists, and North Korean girls form a large part of the sex workers in the cities of northeast China.

They are even more hapless than Chinese prostitutes, since they are probably more afraid of deportation than of their captors. But their sorry fate should probably become a topic of another story …

Read the full story here:
North Korean defectors
Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
11/18/2010

Posted in China, Emigration | Comments Closed

DPRK defectors to South reaches 20,000

Monday, November 15th, 2010

According to the AP:

The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has surged in recent years because of economic suffering in the North, with more than 10,000 defections over the past three years, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Monday.

About as many North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of 2007 as the number who had fled over the entire previous period since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, the ministry said in a statement. The overall total stands now at 20,050.

Ministry official Han Dong-ki said the rise in defections reflects North Korea’s worsening economy.

North Korea has relied on outside food aid since natural disasters and mismanagement wrecked its economy in the mid-1990s, when an estimated 2 million people died of famine. The North’s economic troubles are thought to have worsened following a botched attempt at currency reform last year.

Most defectors reach South Korea after crossing over a shared border with China, where activists say tens of thousands of North Koreans are hiding. About 2,500 defectors arrived in the South in 2007, and the number has risen each year since. More than 2,900 defected last year, the ministry statement said.

Many North Korean defectors have trouble adjusting to their new lives in the South, which is one of Asia’s richest countries. They report job discrimination and difficulty finding work, and say they aren’t being paid fairly or getting promotions.

South Korea runs resettlement centers where North Korean asylum-seekers take a three-month course that teaches them computer skills and such everyday lessons as how to use ATMs and shop in supermarkets. South Korean intelligence officials typically question defectors for about three months before they are sent to the centers.

The two Koreas share a common language, but there are often differences in word meanings after more than a half-century of division following the war. The South is also awash in Western influences compared to the isolated North.

The Unification Ministry said it is working to help defectors resettle in the South more smoothly, offering greater tax reduction and medical benefits.

Defectors are a point of friction between North and South Korea. Two North Korean army majors were sentenced to prison in South Korea earlier this year for plotting to assassinate a high-profile defector. The defector later died of heart failure, and police said there was no connection between his death and the plot.

North Korea denies involvement, accusing South Korea of staging the arrests to stoke public anger against the North.

The defector, Hwang Jang-yop, was one of the North’s most powerful officials when he fled in 1997. He was chief architect of North Korea’s guiding “juche” philosophy of self-reliance and had tutored North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, on the ideology.