Bridging The Deep Divides Between The Two Koreas

"Its been 60 years since the Korean War ended with a only a ceasefire agreement. During that time the two nations have grown further and further apart."

Its been 60 years since the Korean War ended with a only a ceasefire agreement.

During that time the two nations have grown further and further apart.

And for the 25 thousand North Koreans who have defected to the South, these differences make it very hard to fit in.  That’s in part due to the educational gap that life under a totalitarian regime has created.

But many say the division runs even deeper.

Every Wednesday, Lee Min-young greets her new friends at an English conversation class.

She’s a 21-year old university student who says learning the language has really changed her life. 

But she still preferred to speak to me in Korean.
 
“I’ve really enjoyed learning English.  And I’ve met people from other countries who have treated me like a real friend.  I’m really comfortable with them and I think my life is more interesting now”
 
But Lee Min-young isn’t her actual name and unlike her college classmates who learned English from the time they were pre-schoolers, she didn’t have those opportunities growing up.

Lee is a North Korean refugee. She arrived in the South ten years ago without any of her family.

Taking this class is one way she tries to catch up.
 
“When I first came here, I had a culture shock. The education system, the way people think and live, it was all beyond my imagination. Even the way North Koreans speak is different from South Koreans and I got made fun of a lot because of my accent. I had a hard time communicating with South Koreans”
 
Lee’s free English classes are sponsored by the NGO People for Successful Corean Reunification, PSCORE for short. 

It’s a group that tries to bridge the cultural and educational gap between North and South Koreans. Its founder, Kim Young-il, himself a refugee, arrived in South Korea in 2001.
 
“Young defectors have such a hard time adjusting to the education system here. That’s because the education quality is so bad back in the North. We are far behind students in the south. In North Korea, we only learn about leaders Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il.  Subjects are all related to glorifying them.  And that’s the only thing that matters educationally or getting into a university there.”
 
Since PSCORE began in 2006, it’s tutored around 600 young North Koreans. 

In addition to English, it offers computer and math lessons.

Kim says these are skills refugees must have in order to enter South Korean universities and make a living in this very competitive society.
 
But many defectors can’t keep up with South Koreans.
 
According to Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, North Korean refugees have a 7 and a half percent unemployment rate, twice as much as the national average.

And the jobs they do find are low paid and the types that most South Koreans wouldn’t want to have.
 
But Kim says there are still many other challenges for North Koreans that tutoring just can’t help.
 
“We face discrimination from South Koreans. We are just regarded as poor immigrants.  Some defectors would rather lie about where they are from and say they are ethnic-Koreans from China, because they think they will be treated better.”
 
Prejudice to North Korean defectors is widespread, says Shin Mi-nyeo.  She heads the Organization for One Korea, a group that assists refugees with resettlement in the south.

Shin says feelings toward North Koreans range from hostility to complete apathy.  And its all based on a misconception.
 
“There’s a tendency to look at the North Korean government and the North Korean people in the same light.  People think about all aid we’ve given to the north and feel betrayed. This creates anti-North Korean feelings and carries over to the defectors. This where the discrimination begins”.
 
Shin says ending this discrimination begins with educating the South Korean public about the difference between the North Korean regime and its people.
 
In addition to PSCORE’s foreign volunteers, some South Koreans who are fluent in English also sign up to teach defectors.
 
Kim Gina started helping out 3 weeks ago.

She agrees that most South Koreans don’t care about the defectors. But she says if they got to know some North Koreans, their opinions might change.
 
“When I tell my South Korean friends that I am teaching North Koreans refugees, they get worried about me. They ask me if I have to go to some special place, or if people watch me, I say no, they are normal people, they work they have a job, they are just like you. So how same we are, how similar we are really surprised me”
 
Overcoming stereotypes and prejudice seems to work both ways.  Defector Lee Min-young says meeting South Koreans at PSCORE opened her mind too.
 
“After I met some of PSCORE’s South Korean volunteers I think I have learned a lot that about South Korea that I didn’t know before. I used to have some of my own biases toward them, I thought they were all two faced.  But I don’t feel that way anymore.”
 
Lee says these days she’s not ashamed to tell people she’s a defector.

She says she feels as much South Korean as she does North Korean.

• South Korea
• North Korea
• defector
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• Jason Strother
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