Doors closing for North Korean defectors

Seattle Times ^

[SoldierMedic]

SEOUL, South Korea — One can spot the North Koreans by their stunted stature, the result of growing up on inadequate diets. They often seem befuddled in banks and restaurants, and they speak Korean with a noticeable accent.

They risked their lives to get here, but even when they're assimilated they earn half of what their South Korean brethren do — for drudge work. There are 11,000 of them in South Korea, trickling in at the rate of only 2,000 a year, but increasingly they're the unwanted relatives at the doorstep.

The South Korean government, which fears that any crisis with Pyongyang could unleash a flood of North Korean migrants, seems to be pulling up the welcome mat.

"South Korean people are not interested in North Koreans," said Kang Won-cheol, a 25-year-old university student who left North Korea in 2000. "They see us as foreigners, as different from them."

[SoldierMedic]

Interesting.

[SoldierMedic]

I had heard before that NK defectors were treated badly, even people who had been College Professors in NK only capable of being employed as janitors in SK. Personally, I see this is being a roadblock to a reconciled Korea once Kim Jong-Il finally loses power.

[SampleMan]

I’ve always gotten the feeling the South Korea does not want a German style reunification. Somewhat understandable given the East Germany was a utopia compared to NK. Its a bit like reuniting your family by having your uncle with Tourrette Syndrome come live with your young children.

[Larry Lucido]

When I was there in 1975, folks dreamed of reunification. 30 additional years of estrangement and wildly divergent fortunes has, I’m sure, considerably dampend that enthusiasm.

May all communists and their fellow travellers rot in hell.

[glorgau]

A nation of 50 million is having issues with 2,000 a year that speak the same language?

[Vigilanteman]

Well said.

But the plain truth is that it is not a matter of if North Korea will implode, it is a matter of when.

The current South Korean government is, I beleive, from the liberal, peace weenie wing and is not adequately thinking things through. It seems their major focus is on minimizing the number of defectors and, therefore, the amount of handouts.

The handouts would better diverted to training. While it is unrealistic to expect that a college professor from North Korea could get a similar job in South Korea, it is not unrealistic to expect that they could be retrained to be, say, a restaurant owner or, even better, a bureaucrat who could help other NK refugees adapt in the near term and be available to retrain the NK populace in the long-term.

Historical models for this type of success exist. One of the best is probably Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington to teach and train freed slaves. This is where resources need to be redeployed. Not the typical Lieberal solution: "Throw money at the problem and run. Rinse and repeat as often as necessary."

[PLMerite]

“Its a bit like reuniting your family by having your uncle with Tourrette Syndrome come live with your young children.”

There’s a good R-rated movie in there somewhere...

[donna]

They will hear about the Mexican border soon enough.

[SoldierMedic]

It seems odd to me that SK wouldn’t want some sort of re-unification, despite the investments made in food for the North during the constant famines, and with an eye towards the families split by the border.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The families have been split for three or four generations and the south has become westernized.

[Gay State Conservative]

The reunification of East and West Germany was a very difficult process in many ways...particularly financially.But the North/South Korea reunification (if it ever happens) will make the German one look like a picnic in the park by comparison.

[SampleMan]

The ubelievable costs, economic and social, of reunification stack up against just a few social positives.

[SampleMan]

The handouts would better diverted to training. While it is unrealistic to expect that a college professor from North Korea could get a similar job in South Korea, it is not unrealistic to expect that they could be retrained to be, say, a restaurant owner or, even better, a bureaucrat who could help other NK refugees adapt in the near term and be available to retrain the NK populace in the long-term.

Again, NK is not East Germany. It would be far more like incorporating a stoneage society in many respects. If NK implodes, look for SK to maintain the DMZ and set wickets for economic reunification. SK will want to bring the SK economy to the North, vice having NK's flood into SK.

The U.S. will have no contructive role in helping NKoreans directly until they've had time to socially adjust a bit. Even defectors are frightened of Americans from what they've been taught since birth. There is also the issue of an entire generation that is physically and mentally stunted from malnutrition.

[sgtyork]

Odd that they are described as defectors not refugees or escapees or victims. Dictionary definition de·fec·tor /dɪˈfɛktər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[di-fek-ter] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun a person who defects from a cause, country, alliance, etc. [Origin: 1655–65; < L défector renegade, rebel, equiv. to défec- (var. s. of déficere to become disaffected, revolt, lit., to fail; see defect) + -tor -tor] Nope, nothing in their suggesting starvation, work camps, mental indoctrination. The poor, starved, stunted wretches. The only consolation is that even in low paid positions they are better off in the South. I think the underlying message includes a soft, liberal "How dare these escape from the worker's paradise?"

[Verginius Rufus]

Not really comparable. Germany was reunified because the West Germans wanted to lay their hands on the East German Trabants. North Korea doesn’t make any cars.

[Vigilanteman]

If NK implodes, look for SK to maintain the DMZ and set wickets for economic reunification.

I do not disagree, except that it is a matter of when, not if.

We would do well to follow the same model on our southern border-- the Mexican Americans who have made the successful transition to Americans would be invaluable in bringing the American model to Mexico.

Open borders would simply drag South Korea down to a level only slightly higher than where North Korea is now. Higher only because the South Koreans have the know-how to pull themselves out.