Perceptions of North Koreans: a History

Much of our knowledge about the abusive state apparatus, the hardships of everyday life, and the conditions inside prison camps in North Korea is based on testimonies provided by thousands of North Koreans who managed to escape the country, primarily through China and onto South Korea. In the Western media these people are almost always referred to as “defectors” or to a lesser degree “refugees.” In addition, certain epithets like “exile” or “dissident” are almost never used when talking about these same people, although they are regularly used to describe those who have fled similarly repressive regimes. So our question is why are the North Koreans involved within the human rights movement and reporting on North Korea regularly regarded as passive “defectors” and “refugees” and never as active “dissidents” or "exiles" demanding civil and political rights by opposing the North Korean regime?

From 1953 up until the mid-90s, the number of people who defected from North to South was very small, usually not exceeding more than ten people annually. Most came from North Korea's privileged classes and the elite who had the opportunity to leave the country legally thanks to their occupations. One of the first and most famous defectors was No Kum-Sok (now Kenneth Rowe), a former lieutenant of the North Korean Air Forces, who in September 1953 flew his MiG-15 over the border to Kimpo Air Base in South Korea. After No's successful defection more pilots decided to follow suit. Other cases include diplomats who defected while stationed overseas, elite unit soldiers who were stationed near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and knew how to outsmart the guards, and even ordinary fishermen who managed to sail over to the South by deceiving their supervisors. As soon as these people set their feet on South Korean soil they were welcomed as heroes and immediately received South Korean citizenship. The defectors were of high importance for the South Korean government mainly because of the valuable intelligence they brought in with them and because they could be used for propaganda purposes. The government provided them with generous benefits, such as aid packages that every defector was entitled to under the 1962 law (revised in 1978) ensuring a very comfortable life. The package included among other things fixed payments in gold, state-provided apartments that became personal property, an opportunity to enter a university upon request, and even get a bodyguard who would also be used as a personal adviser and guide in the daily life of the defector. Despite these generous benefits the number of defectors from the North remained relatively low.

Shortly after the division of the two Koreas in 1945 and during the Korean War in 1950 – 53 the first migrants began to arrive to South Korea. The accepted term used to refer to these people was “Pinanmin” which means “Refugee” or “Evacuee”. Between 1945 and 1953 some 900,000 or 10 percent of the North Korean population was a Pinanmin fleeing to the South. After 1953 the number of fugitives decreased dramatically mainly because of the relatively strong domestic economic growth and the effective border protection system which had been developed by the government with the purpose to both prevent external penetration by South Korean agents and internal unauthorized attempts to escape North Korea. Those few who still managed to escape after 1953 felt that Pinanmin was no longer an appropriate definition of themselves. So by 1962, when the aforementioned law was adopted by the South Korean government, it was decided that all North Korean fugitives who came to South Korea should be referred to as “North Korean defector” a phrase used interchangeably with similar others such as “brave North Korean defector”, “patriotic defector” or “defector of the same ethnic group”. Because most of the early North Koreans came from the privileged classes they left for purely political and ideological reasons, so "defector" was a suitable term.

After the fall of the Soviet Bloc, instead of an anticipated collapse North Korea plunged into a period of severe famine and economic instability as a result of natural disasters, unsustainable and extremely poor agricultural and economic policies, and Russia and China's lack of support. In 1994 the stream of defectors began to grow exponentially and the fugitives were no longer comprised of privileged elite members but of poor, uneducated members of society coming mainly from the northern provinces sharing the border with China. According to scholarly estimates the famine left about 600,000 to 1 million dead during a six year period from 1994 – 2000 which is equivalent to 3 – 5 % of the population. Even though the government made attempts to reform the economy during the last ten years, the results have been anything but successful, mainly because of the erratic and incoherent nature of the reforms. According to some estimates there were still approximately 6 million people in 2011 who were at severe risk of starvation and one third of North Korean children were at risk of long-term effects from malnutrition.

Part 1 of a series looking at descriptive terms for North Koreans who have left the country. It was written by Jusup Aslakhanov. EAHRNK does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the article.