Refugees in South Korea

Why do North Korean defectors choose to make South Korea their final destination?

When North Koreans receive refugee status in Southeast Asia, they have a choice to go to any number of countries, which includes the US, the UK, Australia and many others. The overwhelming majority of North Korean refugees choose South Korea for the following reasons:

1. Citizenship - they are granted immediate citizenship in South Korea because, according to the South Korean constitution, all North Koreans are South Korean citizens. 

2. A jump start - they receive a lump sum payout, which has been equivalent to $20,000 USD in the past, though this payout has decreased throughout the years. 

3. Language - the two Koreas share the same language. North Koreans do not need to learn a whole new language when they arrive in their new country.

North Korean refugees who land in South Korea from Southeast Asia often describe the experience as traveling to the future. South Korea is a technologically advanced nation. If you look at a satellite image of the Korean peninsula at night, you can see the stark difference in the way the two countries light up at night. Refrigerators have built-in computers with touch screen doors, groceries can be ordered and delivered from a smartphone and people now control their cars and homes with their voices.

North Koreans who are plunged into this futuristic world often find it disorienting. The lights, the language and the modern pressures to keep up can be overwhelming. Compounded by the severe traumas many North Korean defectors have endured, one can easily see why the North Korean population in South Korea is faring so poorly.

Resettling in South Korea

When North Koreans arrive in South Korea, they are subject to an interview process by the NIS (or the National Intelligence Service) to assure that the refugee is not a spy. They are then taken to Hanawon, a re-education facility where they must stay for 3 months. The refugees are taught how to adjust to life in South Korea. They learn basic skills such as riding the subway, using an elevator, paying bills, and using a remote control.

After leaving Hanawon, South Korea provides basic living expenses, subsidies, and housing for 5 years. While this support helps the refugees get on their feet, other challenges lay ahead of them.

The South Korean accent is a difficult transition for North Koreans. Since so many English words have become part of the language, even basic signs are hard to understand. Slang has changed the language much more drastically than in the North.

Old and New Trauma

Discrimination is also common toward North Koreans and the stigma of being an outsider follows them wherever they go. This makes it challenging to find jobs or make friends.

And for many, the trauma of life in North Korea and China can be too difficult to bear without support from others. The incessant brainwashing and life of hardship in North Korea followed by being sold in China by human traffickers imprints memories that can’t be erased.

Elim House

Thankfully, both government and ministry resources are available for North Koreans in South Korea. One example is Elim House, our safehouse for abused North Korean women that opened in July of 2020. Although having a normal life is very difficult for North Koreans, finding a support network can make a significant difference in reaching that sense of normalcy. 

At the time of this writing, we are grateful to announce the arrival of our first Elim House resident. Her life of only 28 years is marred with so much suffering and trauma and we’re praying for the steadfast, pursuing and healing love of Christ to mend what is broken.

Thank you for journeying with us through our Breaking Down North Korea video series. Please help by sharing these videos and let us pray together for the good and salvation of North Korea.

Watch the complete Breaking Down North Korea video series.

The Underground Railroad

South Korea reports that there have been 33,000 North Korean defections into South Korea to date. While defectors running across the DMZ occasionally make headlines, most North Koreans find their way to safety through what has become known as the Modern Day Underground Railroad.

Big Brother

Human traffickers have scattered North Korean refugees throughout China. Since 2003, Crossing Borders has encountered pockets of these refugees and has attempted to help them. We covered the various challenges refugees face to live in China in Episode 2 and how far they are from a life of liberty. Many risk everything on a daunting journey out of China to find freedom.

Imagine trying to leave a country when you don’t have a valid ID, which means you can’t take any form of transportation. Even in privately owned cars, China has routine checkpoints where all the IDs of everyone in the car are checked and documented. Cameras also watch people’s every move on the roads, in city squares and in every building.

With the Chinese government always monitoring, how does a North Korean escape? A patchwork of people with diverse backgrounds and motivations, collectively known as the Modern Day Underground Railroad, works to get North Koreans safely out of China.

The Modern Day Underground Railroad

An entire industry exists in China to help North Korean refugees in China escape. There are some great nonprofit organizations helping to facilitate this. But there are also some people who do this for profit, often referred to as “brokers.” With no access to transportation, defectors must find people who will help them escape from China and hope that they are trustworthy and good people. The problem is that many of the people who offer to help these women end up abusing them.

A refugee in Crossing Borders’ network once told us that she was raped along the way by the very people who said they would help her. There’s no recourse for this inhumane abuse as refugees can’t turn to the Chinese police for help. Involving the authorities would result in capture and punishment for refugees and the perpetrator would likely walk free.

Brokers take refugees from city to city, oftentimes using fake IDs. They have apartments along the way where the refugees can stay at night. The final stretch of the journey is an illegal border crossing out of China into several different southeast Asian countries. Unfortunately, all of these safe harbor countries do not share a direct border with China, which means refugees must sprint through either Myanmar or Laos first to gain their freedom. Once they reach their destination, they are granted refugee status with the South Korean government who ultimately bring them into South Korea.

It’s a miracle that over 33,000 refugees have successfully made it to South Korea to date. 

Freedom

After making this treacherous journey to South Korea one of the refugee women Crossing Borders supported while in China said that the day she got her legal ID in South Korea, she clutched it to her chest all night and cried. The fact that China doesn’t acknowledge North Koreans isn’t just a matter of paperwork; it’s a matter of personhood. When you aren’t considered a person, you don’t feel like you matter. Once this woman had her ID, she realized something that was missing in her life: humanity. 

But once they gain their rights in South Korea and other countries, North Koreans face perhaps their biggest challenge: dealing with the trauma that they’ve experienced along their path to freedom. A lifetime of brainwashing propaganda, the scars of leaving loved ones behind, being trafficked and repeatedly abused and the shock of being injected to modern day living is more than any human should have to bear.  We will cover this in our fourth and final episode of Breaking Down North Korea so please be sure to tune in.

Thank you for following our video series. Please help socialize these heartbreaking issues and please continue to pray for North Korea.

WATCH THE COMPLETE BREAKING DOWN NORTH KOREA VIDEO SERIES.

Life in China

Why have so many North Korean women been sold in China? And what are the daily struggles these women face?

China’s One Child Policy

China’s One Child Policy was an attempt by the central government to stem the growth of the world’s most populous nation by limiting the number of children couples could have to one as China grew too large for the government to feed and control. The policy was successful in curbing growth, but according to a recent publication from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as a result, there are warning signs of population contraction that could begin as early as 2027. Many estimate contraction has already begun.

Dr. Yi Fuxian, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that among the wide range of reasons a country could experience declining birth rates, such as economic prosperity and improved career opportunities for women, the most significant cause in China’s case was the 1979 One Child Policy. 

Not Enough Women

The average gender ratio at birth is 105 boys to every 100 girls. China’s ratio has been as high as 130 boys to every 100 girls and consistently skews higher towards the culturally preferred male children. It is estimated that China now has 30 to 40 million more men than women.

To exacerbate matters further, women born following China's One Child Policy are close to or have already passed their peak fertility age. There are simply not enough women in that generation to sustain China’s population level and the new Two Child Policy passed nearly four decades later on January 1, 2016 may have come too late.

Bride Trafficking

Chinese traffickers sell brides from neighboring countries to address their shortage of women. According to Human Rights Watch, “For years, it was easy for China to ignore the issue. The women and girls being trafficked are often ethnic or religious minorities, from impoverished communities, or, in the case of North Korea, on the run from their own abusive regime.”

Women North Korean Defectors

The first video in our new series “Breaking Down North Korea” covered the common role of women as primary breadwinners in North Korea and why most defectors are women. This created the perfect opportunity for China to meet its gender disparity needs by trafficking women from North Korea.

Once sold into China, life is difficult for North Koreans as a people sold into households with no one they can trust at home and fear of capture and repatriation is constant and all around. Even as they live in China, they are anxious and desperately want freedom.

Because of this ever present threat, they constantly look over their shoulder to make sure they are not being watched or followed. In fact, it is not uncommon for the Chinese government to make public announcements that they will pay bounties to anyone that turns in North Korean refugees. This drives these women deep into isolation. The less people who know about their situations, the less likely they are to be reported to the police. But this isolation leads to depression and hopelessness.

We hear this heartbreaking story time and time again. And this is why I’ve said that tragedy and trauma besets these people wherever they go. Every step of the way is fear and sadness.

Finding Community & Hope

In July, we asked about 100 North Korean refugees under our care about changes to the quality of their lives after encountering Crossing Borders. Here’s what they told us:

I have a supportive community: 97.8%

My life has improved after receiving care from Crossing Borders: 98.9%

I have heard the gospel through Crossing Borders: 93.3%

I live in fear of repatriation to North Korea: 92.1%

Physical safety, emotional healing and salvation are our recurring prayers for North Korean refugees and their children in China and we praise God when we hear back results like this.

Breaking Free

Many of these women look to South Korea for their ultimate freedom. An average of 1100 North Koreans enter into South Korea each year and most escape from China through the Modern Day Underground Railroad, which we will cover in our next episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the first two episodes of our Breaking Down North Korea series. Please drop us a note at hello@crossingbordersnk.org and share your feedback with us.

Introducing Our New Video Series: Breaking Down North Korea

Missionaries and field workers for Crossing Borders in China are introduced to new pockets of North Korean defectors on a regular basis. There are an estimated 200,000 North Korean refugees living in China today but most are scattered throughout China. Though sparsely dispersed, most share common stories of escape from North Korea, hardships of life in China and also have never heard of the hope of Jesus.

God has allowed us to serve these oppressed people for almost two decades and they have taught us a tremendous amount about life in and out of North Korea. A new video series called “Breaking Down North Korea” was born out of our desire to share some of these learnings with our supporters.

Frequently Asked Questions

People interested in learning more about North Korean refugees often ask these questions:

• How do North Koreans escape?

• What is life like for them in China? 

• Do they all want to ultimately escape to South Korea?

Leaving Home

The first video in the Breaking Down North Korea series is called “Leaving Home”. We start our video series by covering the motivations that drive many to escape the hermit kingdom, such as persecution, starvation and utter hopelessness. “Difficult” doesn’t begin to capture the oppressive quality of life in North Korea. But most North Koreans choose to endure rather than risking their lives and putting their families in harm's way by attempting to escape.

As one of the world’s most persecuted peoples, many North Korean citizens are confronted with two impossible choices: stay and continue living under the tyranny of Kim Jong Un and his regime or attempt to escape and risk torture, imprisonment and in many cases, execution. We know many risk it all to flee North Korea based on South Korea’s Ministry of Reunification reported annual average of 1100 defectors entering into the South over the past several years. We wonder how many more are caught in the act and suffer inhumane consequences.

Porous Border

It may be hard to fathom that any person or goods can pass through one of the most ironclad borders in the world. While the DMZ is the world’s most dangerous border, North Korea’s border with China is known to be porous. Illegal activities take place across the border through the work of human agents on both sides of the border. This also seems like an impossibility but if you oppress a people to utter desperation, people find ways to survive, even if that means getting blood on their hands.

Black market activity across the border have imported cell phones connected to Chinese cell towers and have exported drugs like methamphetamines and opium out to China. It has also been the source of trafficked women into China where they are sold as servants and brides in a country still struggling with a shortage of females.

Staying Alive

Most men in North Korea are locked into state jobs with meager pay or serve in the North Korean army. This is the “duty” North Korean men serve, which puts the burden of providing for the family on women. Escaping North Korea is often driven by the selfless motivation of many women who aspire to earn money outside of North Korea in order to send money back to their struggling families.

However, those who successfully escape or are trafficked into China face an entirely new set of challenges where the land and language are foreign, the government deems them as enemies of the state and the threat of capture is ever present.

Breaking Down North Korea

We’re thankful for this opportunity to tell the collective stories of the North Korean refugees under our care. We look forward to answering your questions and uncovering the tragedies that occur behind the North Korean and Chinese veil and to show the redemptive work God has done to bring His light into their hearts and lives.

Please watch, like and share our video series: Breaking Down North Korea. Thank you.

WATCH THE COMPLETE BREAKING DOWN NORTH KOREA VIDEO SERIES.