After fleeing North Korea, some defectors want to go back to life under Kim Jong-un - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
By North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney
Updated about an hour ago
PHOTO: Kwon Chol Nam says South Korea is not the promised land of freedom and prosperity. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)RELATED STORY: The secret war for minds being waged inside North Korea
RELATED STORY: Why these Westerners keep returning to North Korea
MAP: Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of
Kwon Chol Nam fled North Korea for China by wading across a river border at night and crawling under a barbed wire fence.
He made a long, perilous journey across China, and trekked through the jungles of Laos to get to Thailand, where he was allowed to fly to South Korea to start a new life.
That was three years ago. But after so much danger, risk and upheaval he now wants to go back.
South Korea is not what he expected and he desperately misses his family.
"North Korea is my home. It's where my son lives and my parents died," he said.
"There's no hope living here. I've experienced so much harassment and I'm treated like a second-class citizen."
The secret war for minds in North Korea
Activists sneak USBs filled with music, documentaries and films into North Korea in a bid to win a propaganda war and encourage regime change.
Over the last couple of decades thousands of North Koreans have risked life and limb and fled the repression of their homeland to seek refuge in South Korea.
But now in an unexpected turnaround, a growing number want to return home, saying South Korea is not the land of freedom and prosperity that was promised.
Mr Kwon lives in poverty and isolation in a small room in an outer suburb of Seoul, relying on charity to pay the rent.
He is unemployed and claims when he did work as a labourer he was paid much less than fellow workers, or not at all.
He said he suffers from the stigma of coming from the North, saying most South Koreans see him as backward or stupid.
"I am lonely and most of the defectors think like this," he said.
"South Korean people don't want to socialise with us, they don't treat us like human beings.
"Even though North Korea is poorer, I felt more free there. Neighbours and people help each other and depend on each other.
"Life is simpler there and here they are just slaves to money."
PHOTO: The border separating North Korea and South Korea. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)We asked why you thought so many North Korean defectors seriously considered returning home. Read the discussion.
Defectors struggle in the South
Mr Kwon has tried to go back illegally via China, but just as he was about to leave South Korean authorities arrested him and he spent several months in jail.
Defectors immediately become South Koreans, and as citizens it is against the law to have any contact or visit the North.
But he is now leading a campaign to get the South Korean Government to change laws to allow defectors to go home.
It is believed there are about 80 defectors who are actively seeking to return.
Mr Kwon has spent the last several months protesting and lobbying the United Nations and the South Korean parliament.
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North Korea has threatened Australia with "disaster" — but could its missiles reach our shores?
"I have declared myself as a citizen of North Korea," he said.
"Even though my body is here my mind is living in my home."
North Korean defectors were once celebrated in the South and given a new home and a generous living allowance, but not anymore.
There are about 25,000 living in South Korea and they struggle to fit into the fast-paced, hyper-competitive capitalist South.
Studies estimate more than half suffer discrimination and depression and unemployment among them is six times higher than the South Korean average.
It is estimated 25 per cent of all defectors have seriously considered returning home.
PHOTO: North Korea defector Kim Hyung Doek has lived in South Korea for 20 years. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)Even defectors like Kim Hyung Doek — who have been in South Korea for 20 years and have forged a successful career, made money and raised a family — want to go back.
"I have strong feelings that I really want to go back and live with my family because that's where I was born and grew up," he said.
"It's difficult to adapt in the South but I did. I suffered so much discrimination.
"There's a gap of about 40 years between the North and the South."
A few years ago Mr Kim travelled to the North Korean embassy in China and requested a visitor's visa, but it was firmly rejected.
He just hopes that relations between the North and South will improve so one day he can return to see his family.
Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
VIDEO: Kwon wants to return to the country he risked his life to escape (ABC News)
Hundreds of defectors unaccounted for
It is a hard road back for North Korean defectors.
They live in limbo, ostracised in the South but also not welcome back in their homeland, where they are used as propaganda and punished.
Three reasons to worry about North Korea
With the current climate of military threats emanating from the Trump administration, should we be worried? The answer is complicated.
It is impossible to know how many defectors have returned to the North.
The South Korea Unification Ministry says 13, but other evidence suggests the figure is much higher.
Eight hundred defectors known to have arrived in South Korea are unaccounted for.
They are signs the regime in the North has mounted a campaign under Kim Jong-un to woo them back, reportedly with offers of cash, a job and a home.
Once there, they are put on North Korean state media claiming they were "abducted" and that South Korea is "a living hell".
PHOTO: Kwon Chol Nam, a North Korean defector living in Seoul, says he wishes to return to his homeland. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)Regardless, Mr Kwon says his desire to go home is stronger than ever.
"Of course I'll get punished but I am prepared to swallow it," he said.
"In the DPRK [North Korea] it's one man and one rule and our great leader has said he will forgive people who have defected."
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, korea-republic-of
First posted about 11 hours ago
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85 comments
Clearly Sth Korea is not the answer for Nth Korea.
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================== dukeofwoywoy2 hours ago
It's not unusual for people to leave their country of birth to venture to distant lands that they have heard of and images they have seen only to find that, the reality is not what they have envisaged or they have been discriminated against, but also the become homesick for various reasons including missing their family.
It happens here in Australia where immigrants have not been able to settle and have returned home, a lot of the 10pound Poms returned home, and even Aussies born on other states have returned to their original state of birth, and some don't like the idea of moving to another suburb or town.
Some people can change immediately, others take longer to adapt to their new surroundings, yet others pack up and quickly go back
Kwon Chol Nam is not the first and he definitely won't be the last to admit that he's made a mistake and would like to return, but for him it's not that easy.
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permanent traveller2 hours ago
@dukeofwoywoy about 1.5 million 10 pound poms can eot australia.250 k returned it is estimated ,but half of them came back.as a child of a refugee i can assure you many people look back at their homeland with rose colored glasses.upon a return that myth soon becomes destroyed & they soon rememebr the reason they left in the first place
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GrumpiSkeptic3 hours ago
That perhaps summed up what many of the refugees in Australia feel. Sure, Australia has much better refugee transition facilities than most nations, the churches being the most outstanding ones.
However, out among the general population, interacting with Australians is a rather different story. Employment hurdles, social acceptance, political rhetoric (eg. Pauline Hanson and others), and racial and religious diffrences, all make it rather hard for a new comer to feel being at one with the rest.
But that is the price one has to pay to take the perilous journey to live elsewhere.
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Rational3 hours ago
It really gives the saying " The grass in not always greener on the other side" some relevance .
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Echidna3 hours ago
For those with an open mind - interesting facts from a formerly divided country:
Majority of East Germans say if they had known the reality of life in the West, they wouldn’t have yearned for reunification.
20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there," say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."
Link:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html
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Lachlan2 hours ago
@Echidna
Thanks for the anecdote. It is certainly easy to see problems with the here-and-now and neglect the problems of the other place or other time. It would be interesting to compare the East German survey results with those of West Germans saying that West Germany was better 20 years ago.
I spoke to someone from the former East Germany, who said that East German GP practices used to share expensive equipment, whereas West German practices all had their own. After re-unification, the former East German GP practices all bought their own equipment to be "western", but then realised that it isn't really better and is much more expensive, and so went back to sharing.
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1 reply
cee cee3 hours ago
He abandoned his son, with almost certain zero chance of seeing him again? Just to get a better life not for his son but for himself?
As a father myself, I am not sympathetic.
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Lachlan2 hours ago
@cee cee
Judging from the photo, I'd guess that his son is an adult and able to decide for himself whether or not to join his father. Let's not judge too hastily.
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Kiio3 hours ago
Thank you ABC for another wonderful propaganda piece, the north salutes you!
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Harry O3 hours ago
@Kiio Its not a propaganda piece, its telling the facts. But people like you have a real problem with the Truth. Capitalism is not all roses and fun. Its actually a hard slog. If you have a good job with good pay, then you can get somewhere. But if you are poor, that's the way you stay for many years and your family will stay poor. The West only rewards the RICH people. The West uses a lot of propaganda, and I have heard of many East Germans who do not like the West and do not like the Reunification of West and East Germany. Not every one in the world wants to be like us you know. A lot of people see us as Slaves to the almighty dollar. So try and wake up and see ALL sides. ABC is telling you a fact, and it's not propaganda. So the Capitalists Salute you, as YOU are a slave to them.
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Kiio3 hours ago
@Harry O @Kiio I'm sure north korea would be very happy to have you.
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gaznazdiakkk2 hours ago
@Kiio @Harry O
Try getting sick or injured in the US Kiio, I did back in the mid 80's.
I presented at Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles and because I was comfortably "flush" paying up front for my treatment wasn't too much of a problem, but shortened my stay by two months because of the cost.
Having arrived in the crowded waiting room last and been treated first, I naturally asked about those in line before me and was told, and I quote verbatim. "Don't worry about them, they haven't got the money or insurance."
Well you may say "I'm sure north korea would be very happy to have you."(sic), but after WW2 Germans used to say that sure the Nazis murdereda few million people, but at least the trains ran on time.
Same as your sentiment stated above
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Lachlan2 hours ago
@gaznazdiakkk
The Germans are remarkable for how hard they have tried to atone for the Nazis' actions. There are laws against anything glorifying that period, which have the support of the population. Although some Germans may have made that comment about the trains, please don't give the impression that it was a widespread opinion. (I have only heard it said by non-Germans, in the context of "be thankful for small mercies".)
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2 replies
Aust.Citizen3 hours ago
I feel sorry and touched for Kwon Chol Nam, If the Australian Government would bring him here I will haply put him under my roof and amongst my circle of friends to make his life more pleasant, I'm no where near being wealthy, just happy to share.
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Miles Craven2 hours ago
@Aust.Citizen You don't get it, do you? I feel for him as much as you do, but Australia is in no better position to give him what he wants and needs than is South Korea. He wants to go home. He has seen what western society is like and has concluded that life is better in North Korea. He has an advantage that very few of us can boast: he has seen it from both sides.
One of the major reasons for the huge investment by western governments in propaganda telling us how bad things are in places like North Korea and Cuba is to stop us from looking at our own civil society with clear eyes. Every time someone points out any of the many failings of our own politico-economic system, the standard comeback from the apologistas is to point out that things are supposedly worse in one of these "bogey-nations", or to invite the proposer to go live there.
But when you look at the reality, what we see is that there are a number of different ways of defining "success" in a civil society. And there are a number of different ways of defining and relating to "human rights".
In the west, we see human rights largely in abstract terms. We all know that we are supposed to enjoy the "inalienable" rights of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". But we also know that the vast majority of the human beings living under the yoke of capitalism lead miserable, day-to-day existences with no guaranteed access to the essentials of life. For these people, ethereal concepts like "freedom of speech" are largely meaningless. And, even in "advanced", "affluent" western countries, civil rights have been so severely curtailed under the veil of the "war on terror", that we can no longer claim to respect or guarantee the right to free speech in our own countries.
Countries that have chosen a socialist path of development have largely done so because capitalism has failed them. They tend to have a wider interpretation of "human rights", in which the right to healthcare, education, meaningful productive employment, and a safe, secure home.
There are very few countries in the world that can honestly say that they have no political prisoners. Our jails are rapidly filling with people who have done nothing wrong other than holding or expressing certain views. Cuba and North Korea have prisoners who fall into this category as well. None of us are in a position to preach on the issue of political rights. But there is a big difference when it comes to the other rights. There is no unemployment in Cuba. There are no homeless people in Cuba. Everybody in Cuba lives within walking distance of a GP who will treat them for no cost and, if they need hospital treatment, its free as well, with no waiting lists. Everybody in Cuba who wants a job has a job. And, at the same time as western nations have been falling over themselves to withdraw and withhold the rights that we see as demonstrating our superiority over places like Cuba, Cuban society is opening up and becoming more democratic.
Not everybody in the world sees western society through the same propaganda-tinted glasses as we do. Defectors from "the East" arrive believing all the crap they have been fed by western intelligence services, but are soon exposed to the reality. And it is clear that many don't like what they see.
This bloke isn't after free room and board - he wants to live as a free citizen of an inclusive, cohesive civil society, and has made the informed judgement that he is more likely to achieve that in North Korea.
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vrooOM4 hours ago
Must be bonkers.
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vaughan4 hours ago
All that glitters is not gold- we in the capitalist west are also waking up to the system we live under.
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Oosterman4 hours ago
There is nothing like own country and own home. Materialism isn't enough.
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Vlad264 hours ago
With the tone of the 'reporting' by MSM, and ABC included, one could've been mistaken that it was Nth Korea that bombed the hell out of the US and killed millions of Americans rather than the other way around
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SDV3 hours ago
@Vlad26 Millions?
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Lachlan2 hours ago
@SDV @Vlad26
Wikipedia says 400,000-750,000. It is big enough to say "half a million", so it is "measured in the millions". It's a slight exaggeration, but more accurate than many comments in this forum...
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Miles Craven2 hours ago
@SDV @Vlad26 SDV,
That's right - the UN sanctioned attack on Korea that divided the nation in the 1950's was directly responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings. Many of these were directly involved in combat - there were tens of thousands of Korean, US, Australian, British, Chinese and other nationality soldiers killed in the fighting. But there were also hundreds of thousands of innocent Korean citizens killed by US carpet-bombing. But most of the fatalities resulted from the partition of Korea, which denied a huge part of Koreas population access to the fertile agricultural land and natural resources in the southern half of their nation, and brutal economic sanctions designed to prevent the independent North from prospering.
Imagine for a moment what Australia would be like if t were partitioned like Korea. If, for example, most Australian citizens were herded into the northern half of South Australia while all the good agricultural lands, our ports, our mineral wealth, became part of a colony owned by a foreign power. How much food could we grow for ourselves in the desert with no water. How would our export performance be? Do you think that there would be many people with jobs, let alone homes or televisions or cars or recreational drones?
The people of North Korea have paid a huge price for their refusal to bow down to a foreign power. They have shown a level of patriotism that would be entirely foreign to us. Very few of us are prepared to accept a tax increase "for the good of the country", so I doubt that many of us would be prepared to make the sacrifices made by the people of North Korea, to protect our sovereignty.
The people of North Korea believe that they have something, or more likely are building something, that they see as worthy of great personal sacrifice. Many of our problems in Australia stem from the fact that we don't.
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Vlad264 hours ago
North Korea, anti Russia hysteria, Trump mania. Great stuff ABC
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gaznazdiakkk4 hours ago
@Vlad26
The paranoids are out in force today.
Point us to any anti-Russian comment in this article.
Your comment is the only mention of Russia on the entire page.
You obviously didn't even read the article, if anything it's showing South Korea up as an uninviting, discriminatory society.
But there are none so blind as those who won't see, or only see that which fits their narrow thinking.
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Cory2 hours ago
Clearly you didn't comprehend his comment correctly. The issue raised was the bent twisted slant the ABC is putting on a sad situation. The ABC is holding itself out as the moral god of the planet. However the ABC is schizophrenic, sometimes left & sometimes right but they're never balanced (giving both sides) like they use to before the liberals cut their funding.
The ABC has presented this one sided article to gather support for THE ABC's position on this issue so Vlad26's comment is totally appropriate & correct.
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gaznazdiakkk2 hours ago
@Cory
I suggest you read both the article and Vlad's comment again and then point out just one anti-Russian reference.
Just one.The article merely points out(and yes it should be obvious) that someone from a programmed non-capitalist society has trouble adjusting, particularly in a capitalist society where the people have been programmed to hate his kind.
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gaznazdiakkk2 hours ago
@Cory
Further to my other comment, you even contradict yourself.
"the ABC is schizophrenic, sometimes left & sometimes right but they're never balanced (giving both sides)"
When talking about left and right, what other sides are there?
You say the ABC is sometimes left sometimes right, but somehow not giving both sides.Just how does that work, it would seem obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that giving both the left and the right is being balanced.
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cmjingjo5 hours ago
He doesn't have more freedom in North Korea. He's just unemployed, alone and homesick.
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Lachlan2 hours ago
@cmjingjo
How do you know what freedom he has in North Korea? Have you been there? He has.
He obviously isn't talking about political freedom. Perhaps he is talking about freedom to interact with the people around him in a way that he can't in South Korea (due to being alone, as you say). The fact that he can't go "home" now and could earlier is a big loss of freedom. (Of course, if a South Korean defected to the North, they would experience the same loss of freedom; it is about his freedom, rather than the freedom of life in the north and south in general.)
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1 reply
Rick23805 hours ago
This reminds me of the people you hear that wish to return to prison, because they like the regularity and perceived safety.
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Cory4 hours ago
Exactly...
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zedsonata5 hours ago
One of the main problems with the South Korean governments handeling of defectors is that they put them though these programs that teach them how to live in South Korea (IE how to use a phone, how to use a computer, etc) but then forget to teach them about the problems of South Korean society. South Koreans are incredibly discriminatory.
I feel that NK defectors would have much more success in South Korea if they moved to small towns like where I live. My small town here in Korea has that old style country town feeling, similar to Australian small towns where people help each other and everyone knows each other. A NK defector in Seoul is an "untrustworthy person" in many South Koreans eyes. Out here in the country they can't afford to discriminate like that.
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Lachlan1 hour ago
@zedsonata
Well done on thinking of constructive solutions. We need more of that!
I can't speak for small Korean towns, but small towns in Australia tend to be reluctant to accept those from out of town. They are generally (though not always) less accepting of people of different race, religion, sexuality etc.. There have been some great success stories of refugee communities in Australia fitting well into rural towns, and when it works I think it is great -- we're much to urbanised. However, I think they are the exception rather than the rule.
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Arkacia5 hours ago
I do feel sorry for that poor fella, he can't move forward nor back, in short his freedom has been taken away in a democratic country, what an irony, he's escaping prosecution and find discrimination by his own kinsmen instead. It's sad but true, discrimination is everywhere unfortunately. The main problem is that most of the defector feel that they are not welcome in South Korea, try putting in their shoes they live their life by hand out only, they can't get a job and feel lonely and discriminated. But I dont blame the South Korean neither, they have to feed them, find them a job and educated them, who can continually do
this long term without prejudice? To say that they are ignorant and can't think for themselves is very narrow minded.
A person even though he/she is poor or non-intelligent still needs to have dignity to live, this is a very basic human nature. Can you people live on hand out and been look down for the rest of your life? I dont think so.
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Cory5 hours ago
North Korea is a contaminated zone when considering it in western terms. As with communism/dictatorships generally people there have simply acclimated themselves over decades for their own survival which is simple basic human instinct. In the same way abused choose to stay with abusers, it's more a case of everything else being foreign causing them to decide to return, not that what there returning to is great by western standards.
As for the ABC, this has become a News Corp style sensationalism style 'news type' business. The ABC has become a zone of it's own rhetoric that sadly you now have to read between it's liberal lines when dealing with an international conflict.
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Anita54 hours ago
@Cory
Classic Stockholm syndrome.
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Lachlan1 hour ago
@Anita5
Close, but classic Stockholm syndrome would cause people not to defect. It would also cause the defectors to like the regime, whereas the defectors actually like their friends back home.
.
Instead, this is a classic case of disillusionment. People in South Korea try to convince people in the North that life is much better in the South. (I think this is probably a good thing to do. It is much better than military action.) In doing so, they have promised too much, and the defectors find that the loss of their social circle is worse than the gains in material comforts and political freedom. Disillusionment is much more common than Stockholm syndrome.
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2 replies
Doctor Nik5 hours ago
"Why do you think so many North Korean defectors seriously consider returning home?"
Because ignorance is bliss, and self-responsibility a curse.
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Grasshopper5 hours ago
@Doctor Nik Yes but family is obviously a very big part of it too. They don't necessarily want to return to the regime but they miss their family.
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omgitsnero5 hours ago
They have mood enhancing fridge magnets in North Korea.
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Mandy H6 hours ago
It's not all that surprising so many defectors wish to return to the North, it's basic psychology. These people come from a place in which almost everything is decided for them, they are told where to work, where to live and what they do with spare time. They then come to South Korea which is far less confined and they don't know how to cope in a society like that, life is now about more than surviving harsh winters and without proper support or understanding, they're not able to transition into this type of world.
It's sadly also not surprising that they are discriminated against, all the rhetoric used when talking about the North Korean leadership is applied to any person from the North. I don't doubt that many North Koreans are behind South Koreans in education and technological understanding and that sort of educational divide is well known to foster discrimination. The South needs to be running integration programs that focus on helping defectors "catch up" on that education and to help them make social connections. Isolation is always going to be an issue because they have no way to contact the family they left behind. So encouraging them to socialise is the only way to help combat those feels and until citizens of the South understand that they will have defectors who want to return to the North. Defectors should be allowed to return if they wish.
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Duade Borg6 hours ago
@Mandy H Well articulated, thank you
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2 replies
CommonSenseIsntCommon6 hours ago
As some mentioned, Korea has been a plaything of East vs West since WWII. However, such places also carry the overall scent of their local societies. Germany lived in just as bad a situation, but the people had a whole different cultural approach to the problem. Defectors from the East were welcomed in the West, and ultimately the people of the East overwhelmed those in power.
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Anita56 hours ago
I think the problem of comparing Europe in the Cold War to Korea today, is that European and Asian history, culture and societal expectations are different.
I note that one defactor equated leaving the death place of his parents to his desire to see his son.
I don't think European defectors felt this way.
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Anita56 hours ago
Yesterday we discussed the US making a preemptive attack on NK. Today it is dissatisfied deserters.
My first thought was that this is propaganda.
My second thought was that having visited Seoul, briefly, a couple of times, outside of the hotel it never impressed me as a nice city to live in, especially if you were poor or marginalized in any way.
I don't really know what to make of this article.
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Anita56 hours ago
Sorry spell check changed defectors to deserters.
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2 replies
LeeM9998887776 hours ago
If they want to go back they should be allowed to go. What is freedom worth if they cannot even make that decision?
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Duade Borg6 hours ago
I'm shocked, appalled and disgusted that this article is intertwined with reams of warmongering propaganda. Is this the ABC or News Corp??
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Tova6 hours ago
@Duade Borg Do you really think so?
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Duade Borg6 hours ago
@Tova@Duade Borg Every related article is a picture of a nuclear explosion. Would you have believed the Australian national broadcaster would be trumpeting the tune of the US war machine if I told you so ten years ago? I wouldn't have
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Lachlan1 hour ago
@Duade Borg @Tova
The ABC may have different related articles for different views, but the ones I get are pictures of missiles (no evidence whether or not they are nuclear). However, that is entirely to be expected, since it is far and away the most newsworthy aspect of North Korea at the moment. The fact that North Korea has ICBMs and nuclear weapons is important to Australia, entirely independent of the US war machine. The fact that the US war machine is responding badly is also news, but reporting on that isn't "trumpeting the tune" of that machine.
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4 replies
Wideyed6 hours ago
There was one country, called Korea. Foreign interests divided them after 1945, and keep them divided injecting hatred and animosity along the division. Indeed, it has not much to do with Koreans. North or South, they all suffer the same vicious foreign power game over Korea's strategic importance.
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SackaStardust5 hours ago
@Wideyed Yep, the same USA model to support the military industrial complex
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old man7 hours ago
Gosh what can you say? We make choices hoping or one result and find out we were wrong. I wonder if t leader would really welcome him back? I came here from the USA and though I would never want to go back there leaving one society you know and have grown up with is never easy. I cannot even imagine what it would be like for a person from NK trying to resettle in the South. I suppose compassion is too much to ask.
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Zimbo2557 hours ago
Interesting that parallels can be made between this story and leaving Zimbabwe to live in Australia, and a longing for family and the past. Fortunately, unlike Mr Nam, there was an option to return for a visit, which made realize what we had. Will never forget our family or past, but now know how fortunate we are now.
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ouphrontis7 hours ago
Many people make decisions based upon their beliefs and accumulative influences at the time, further education, either empirical or otherwise, can lead to a positive re evaluation of an original decision. Mr. Nam seems to have recognised that the abstract vision of a better life for him in another country is farcical to him. No big deal about a capitulation enabled through a positive learning process, that's what liberation through education is all about.
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AtomAnt777 hours ago
I suspect that at least some of the defectors might be planted by the North to sow diasaffection amongst those living in the South.
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Duade Borg6 hours ago
@AtomAnt77 An absurd proposition given the statistics quoted in the article but even more so for anyone who has a sliver of knowledge on this subject.
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===============
After fleeing North Korea, some defectors want to go back to life under Kim Jong-un
Updated
Kwon Chol Nam fled North Korea for China by wading across a river border at night and crawling under a barbed wire fence.
He made a long, perilous journey across China, and trekked through the jungles of Laos to get to Thailand, where he was allowed to fly to South Korea to start a new life.
That was three years ago. But after so much danger, risk and upheaval he now wants to go back.
South Korea is not what he expected and he desperately misses his family.
"North Korea is my home. It's where my son lives and my parents died," he said.
"There's no hope living here. I've experienced so much harassment and I'm treated like a second-class citizen."
Over the last couple of decades thousands of North Koreans have risked life and limb and fled the repression of their homeland to seek refuge in South Korea.
But now in an unexpected turnaround, a growing number want to return home, saying South Korea is not the land of freedom and prosperity that was promised.
Mr Kwon lives in poverty and isolation in a small room in an outer suburb of Seoul, relying on charity to pay the rent.
He is unemployed and claims when he did work as a labourer he was paid much less than fellow workers, or not at all.
He said he suffers from the stigma of coming from the North, saying most South Koreans see him as backward or stupid.
"I am lonely and most of the defectors think like this," he said.
"South Korean people don't want to socialise with us, they don't treat us like human beings.
"Life is simpler there and here they are just slaves to money."
Defectors struggle in the South
Mr Kwon has tried to go back illegally via China, but just as he was about to leave South Korean authorities arrested him and he spent several months in jail.
Defectors immediately become South Koreans, and as citizens it is against the law to have any contact or visit the North.
But he is now leading a campaign to get the South Korean Government to change laws to allow defectors to go home.
It is believed there are about 80 defectors who are actively seeking to return.
Mr Kwon has spent the last several months protesting and lobbying the United Nations and the South Korean parliament.
"I have declared myself as a citizen of North Korea," he said.
North Korean defectors were once celebrated in the South and given a new home and a generous living allowance, but not anymore.
There are about 25,000 living in South Korea and they struggle to fit into the fast-paced, hyper-competitive capitalist South.
Studies estimate more than half suffer discrimination and depression and unemployment among them is six times higher than the South Korean average.
It is estimated 25 per cent of all defectors have seriously considered returning home.
Even defectors like Kim Hyung Doek — who have been in South Korea for 20 years and have forged a successful career, made money and raised a family — want to go back.
"I have strong feelings that I really want to go back and live with my family because that's where I was born and grew up," he said.
"There's a gap of about 40 years between the North and the South."
A few years ago Mr Kim travelled to the North Korean embassy in China and requested a visitor's visa, but it was firmly rejected.
He just hopes that relations between the North and South will improve so one day he can return to see his family.
Hundreds of defectors unaccounted for
It is a hard road back for North Korean defectors.
They live in limbo, ostracised in the South but also not welcome back in their homeland, where they are used as propaganda and punished.
It is impossible to know how many defectors have returned to the North.
The South Korea Unification Ministry says 13, but other evidence suggests the figure is much higher.
Eight hundred defectors known to have arrived in South Korea are unaccounted for.
They are signs the regime in the North has mounted a campaign under Kim Jong-un to woo them back, reportedly with offers of cash, a job and a home.
Once there, they are put on North Korean state media claiming they were "abducted" and that South Korea is "a living hell".
Regardless, Mr Kwon says his desire to go home is stronger than ever.
"Of course I'll get punished but I am prepared to swallow it," he said.
"In the DPRK [North Korea] it's one man and one rule and our great leader has said he will forgive people who have defected."
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, korea-republic-of
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