One of the Park Geun-hye administration’s four guiding principles for realizing its vision is the establishment of a foundation for peaceful unification. The people’s strong interest in unification and unity are the most critical factors for laying a foundation for peaceful unification and realizing a unified Korean Peninsula. This poses a challenge, because the nation has been divided for so long that the people are increasingly indifferent and skeptical about unification. The ROK government is therefore stepping up its promotion efforts on unification to build a public consensus on it.
In 2013, the government declared the last week of May as Unification Education Week to stimulate public interest in unification. It staged a number of education programs and cultural events concerning unification, and had schools nationwide give lessons on the subject. The government also formulated more experience and participation programs, including Unification Camp, to heighten awareness and understanding of unification among the younger generation that will take the lead in the post-unification era of the unified Korea. The Unification Education Support Act was amended to improve education on unification at schools.
In 2013, the government focused its public relations program on introducing many North Korean refugees trying to settle into their new lives in South Korea through the media. A promotional video of North Korean refugees’ success stories was produced and shared. Public awareness campaigns were also carried out by a TV campaign program featuring North Korean refugees who succeeded in settling in South Korea and a radio commercial entitled “North Korean Refugees, Our Neighbors Making Us Happier.” They were aired on public TV, cable TV, radio, outdoor media, and in subway stations.
Coupled with these efforts, the government has helped North Korean defectors settle in South Korea. The settlement of those who risked their lives to come down to South Korea is instrumental not only from a humanitarian perspective but also because it is a starting point for integration between South and North Korea.
White paper on Korean unification 2014
Employment of North Korean refugees
In cooperation with the Small and Medium Business Administration, Hanawon held a job fair for North Korean refugees every month to help them find jobs at small or medium enterprises (SMEs). At the fair, North Korean refugees submitted their resumes to HR personnel of SMEs and took interviews. This event exposed participants to the employment process, helping them to overcome the fear associated with working life and to make decisions on their careers of their own volition. Coupled with the job fair, visits to SMEs are organized to familiarize participants with the work culture and with SMEs in South Korea. A total of 5,546 North Korean refugees participated in the job fair between January 2010 and December 2013, 2,372 of whom passed their interviews and got job offers.
White paper on Korean unification 2014
North Korean refugee success stories
Ms. Lee Young-hee entered South Korea in 2002 and experienced various kinds of work, from collection for a company leasing mobile phone express chargers to a part-time job making boxes for KRW 700,000 per month. She built her career by leading a project team of Korean paper art for three years at a self-sufficiency center in Yangcheon, Seoul and then started her own business of producing sample books similar to Korean paper art in 2008. Her business has grown as a social enterprise with monthly sales of KRW 50 million, and all ten of its employees are North Korean refugees.
Ms. Kim Jee-eun entered South Korea in 2002. She is an oriental medical doctor. During the early period of settlement, she became involved in multilevel marketing and lost all of her settlement money. After having made and learned from many mistakes, she entered a college of oriental medicine and passed the state exam for the oriental doctor license in 2009, becoming the first South-North doctor of oriental medicine. She currently runs her own clinic and provides volunteer medical services. A major daily newspaper dubbed her one of the 100 people who will do the most to enhance national prestige in ten years.
White paper on Korean unification 2014
Employment of North Koreans
Many struggle to find employment in South Korea or feel they face discrimination the workplace
The unemployment rate for North Korean ex-pats is more than three times that for South Koreas and defectors last an average of 19months in a job compared to 67 months for their southern counterparts.North Koreans struggle to raise the funds to start a business and lack the same support networks or institutional awareness of south Koreans. “A bit of institutional discrimination is also inevitable – especially as many applicants are over 40, and the language they use marks them out as North Korean” says Hwang Ye-Bin, director of entrepreneurship assistance at the North Korean Refugees Foundation.
The North Koreans setting up businesses in the south 2014
South Korean government expenditure
In addition to the basic settlement allowance, the government also grants additional benefits to especially vulnerable groups—seniors aged 60 years or older (at the time of making decisions on protection), the mentally or physically challenged, people in long-term medical treatment, and children of single-parent families.
(Unit: 10,000 won)
Household size / Basic settlement benefit / Housing subsidy / Total
Initial payment / Installments
One person / 400 / 300 / 1300 / 2000
Two persons / 500 / 700 / 1700 / 2900
Three persons / 600 / 1000 / 1700 / 3300
Four persons / 700 / 1300 / 1700 / 3700
Five persons / 800 / 1600 / 2000 / 4400
Six persons / 900 / 1900 / 2000 / 4800
Seven persons or more / 1000 / 2200 / 2000 / 5200
eng.unikorea.go.kr
Building connections with North KoreaTo stave off further widening of the gaping economic disparity driving apart the two Koreas, citizens in the South with ties to the North need to step up and play a larger role in the solution by making investments in their hometowns North of the border while urging for bilateral government support to do so.
Those displaced during the conflict and/or their descendants, who have stronger bonds to the North than other South Koreans, come in. “If senior citizens from this contingent collect money to build a hospital or donate a TV to schools in their hometowns, that can not only bridge the economic gap, but also give North Koreans a positive perception about the capitalist South Korean society.
He cited the example of Chung Ju Young, the founder of the Hyundai Group. who was born in born and grew up in North Korea’s Kangwon Province. Chung gifted 1,001 cows to North Korea in 1998 and built a public gymnasium in Pyongyang, which is named after him.
November 2015
Mental health services
North Korean refugees commonly have experiences of acute stress and trauma, especially the post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. PTSD “can occur after someone goes through a traumatic event like combat, assault, or disaster”. North Korean refugees have typically been exposed to traumatic events, since many of them either witnessed or experienced violence within North Korea. Some were tortured or forcefully repatriated to North Korea from China while attempting to reach the south. Many suffered serious human rights violation, and was forced to work while in a third country.
In a recent study on the effects of PTSD two thirds of 301 North Korean refugees surveyed showed PTSD symptoms such as insomnia and feeling of helplessness that made it difficult for those with the symptoms to hold steady jobs or perform well academically.
Working towards unification
The reunions, as always, are a mixture of high emotion and media frenzy. Some of the participants were speechless around the reporters and the flashing cameras. Journalists crowded around South Korean Lee Ok-yeon, 88, as she reunited with her husband, Chae Hun Sik, for the first time in 65 years. She lives in the same house her husband, also now 88, built and that the couple shared as newlyweds. Both appeared to be in shock at the reunion.
The images are broadcast throughout South Korea, where the reunions are big news. North Korea's government worries that scenes of affluent South Koreans might influence its grip on power, analysts say. In a typical piece of propaganda, Pyongyang published a report about the reunions through its state media that said the North Korean participants explained to their South Korean relatives how their lives have been "happy" and "worthwhile" under the North's socialist system.
The deep emotions stem partly from the elderly reuniting after decades spent apart, partly from the knowledge that this will be their only chance. None of the past participants has had a second reunion.
South Korea uses a computerized lottery system to pick participants while North Korea reportedly chooses based on loyalty to its authoritarian leadership. Nearly half of the 130,410 South Koreans who have applied to attend a reunion have died.
Seoul has long called for a big increase in the number of people taking part in reunions and holding them more regularly. But North Korea has only occasionally agreed to the reunions, which analysts say Pyongyang uses as a bargaining chip in negotiations with South Korea.
October 20 2015
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye should urgently press Chinese leaders in Beijing to halt the forced return of a group of nine North Korean refugees toNorth Korea, and to permit them to travel and seek asylum in a country of their choice, includingSouth Korea, Human Rights Watch said today in letterstoPresident ParkandChinese President Xi Jinping.On November 19, 2015, the South Korean government co-sponsored a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning grave human rights violations in North Korea, which received support from 112 states.
Human Rights Watch called for the South Korean government to step up its leadership to save this group. Park should press the Chinese government to reveal the whereabouts of the group, and demand that Beijing abide by its international obligations to protect refugees and under no circumstances force them back to a place where they could face persecution.
“President Park should make it very clear to China that this group of nine North Koreans is not alone and not anonymous,” Robertson said. “China needs to know that the world is watching and expects Beijing to live up to its commitments to protect refugees under binding international law.”
Public perception
Public attitude towards the North Korean refugees shows a deteriorating trend. In 2005, a poll survey conducted by the East Asia Institute (EAI) showed 75% of the participants expressed some degree of closeness towards the North Korean people, but the proportion dropped to 55.2% in the same EAI poll taken in 2010. A 2011 study showed that South Koreans in their 20s as a whole had the most negative attitude towards North Korean refugees, in contrast to the sixty-or-older group. This generational difference is likely due to the fact that the younger generation of South Koreans no longer consider North Koreans as part of the same nation, as the two Koreas have been separated for more than half a century. As the result, many North Korean refugees experience mistrust, unfair treatment, ostracism, and discrimination, even outright hostility, creating serious challenges to the prospect of successful resettlement.
One in four North Korean refugees in South Korea experienced discrimination or disregard in the past year because of their refugee status, a survey shows.
Refugees were also found to earn roughly two-thirds the income of other South Koreans despite working more hours.
The findings released on Feb. 9 were part of a 2014 refugee survey by the Ministry of Unification and Korea Hana Foundation. The results were based on surveys conducted between July and September 2014 with 12,777 refugees aged 15 and older who had entered South Korea as of December 2013.The study showed North Korean wage earners making an average of 1,471,000 won (US$1,340) per month, or roughly 66% the 2,231,000 won (US$2,040) average for ordinary South Koreans.
“Another factor was the comparatively short employment period for North Korean defectors. They were employed on average for 19-months, much shorter than the 67-month average for other South Koreans,” the foundation explained.
Employed refugees were found to work an average of 47 hours per week, or nearly three hours more than the 44.1-hour average for ordinary South Koreans. They were also three times more likely to work in day labor positions: 19.8% of refugees, compared to 6.1% of the general population.
Among respondents, 25.3% said they had experienced discrimination or disregard over the past year. The most frequently cited grounds for discrimination were “different speech and methods of communication,” mentioned by 68.6% of respondents. Other factors included “negative perceptions of refugees” (42.6%), “lack of skill compared to South Koreans” (19.2%), and “low earnings” (13.4%).
In terms of general quality of life, 67.6% of refugees said they were “satisfied” with life in South Korea, while 28.6% rated it as “average” and 3.4% reported being “dissatisfied.” The most commonly given reasons for satisfaction were “the ability to do what I want” (47.4%) and “economic freedom compared to North Korea” (42.3%).
Extract from
Social Studies 1.5
LA 20 resource