만남의장
    등록일 : 2017-07-07 오후 8:49:21  조회수 : 1214
  217 . [Is your mom North Korean?] Interview of Yeonhee (pseudonym) and Ms. Kim Myungioo (pseudonym) by JeongYejin
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lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">Interview of Yeonhee (pseudonym) and lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">Ms. Kim Myungioo (pseudonym) by JeongYejin lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;">


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">Is your mom North Korean?


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">A lot of time has passed since the two countries were divided.
As a senior in high school, I have gained more interest in North Korean teen
defectors through participating in the Korean Academy of Foreign Studies “Nanum
(charity) concert.” I believe that understanding and awareness of North Korean
defectors may be the first step in the direction toward reunification. In order
to understand North Korean teen defectors on a deeper level, I interviewed North
Korean teens at an alternative school for North Korean teens called Durihana
International School.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The first person I interviewed was Yeonhee (pseudonym). There
was an awkward atmosphere in the room; Yeonhee seemed defensive and nervous,
being interviewed by a stranger. It was my first experience interviewing a younger
student, let alone a North Korean. Before the first question, 1 asked her if
I could record the interview in order to review her words. She replied
lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="purple"> “Recording....?” color="navy"> and expressed her discomfort. She didn't want her pictures taken
and wanted to use a pseudonym rather than her own. Concerned, she said, “I'm
scared that my friends from my previous school would talk if the photos were
posted somewhere....”


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Born of a North Korean mother and a South Korean father, Yeonhee
attended an ordinary South Korean school till she transferred to Durihana International
School last November. Yeonhee seemed at ease once she started describing how
she transferred to this school with her friend Yoonji (pseudonym). She spoke
about how she lived with Yoonji and Yoonji's younger sister in the dorms.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">When queried about any moments when she experienced discrimination
as a North Korean while attending an ordinary South Korean school, she related
her story to me. While attending the ordinary South Korean school, she shared
with one close friend that her mother was North Korean. That friend told her
other friends; those friends used to ask Yeonhee, "Is your mom a North
Korean?" Whenever they asked, she would answer vaguely and changed the
topic. I sensed that she was hurt by these experiences. I believe that these
experiences may have hurt Yeonhee enough so she now hides her stories.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Yeonhee plans to transfer to an ordinary South Korean middle school
soon. Although she enjoyed her experiences at Durihana International School
and cherished her memories there, she decided to take her mom's advice about
her future benefits in going to an ordinary school. Concerning her transfer,
she was worried that her new classmates perhaps had watched the television news
about Durihana International School and seen her. Yeonhee worried about friends
finding out that her mother is North Korean; I realized that even though she
looked like any other elementary school student, she had concerns and hardships
in her own environment. 1 was deeply moved by her situation.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">We finished the first interview and I accompanied her back to
her classroom. While walking her back, thoughts swam in my head. Due to her
timidness, she didn't want her photo, any recording, or her name to be released.
It wasn’t easy to live as a North Korean defector's child. She was hurt by
discrimination and by what others thought. Moreover, even though Yeonhee was
not a defector herself but a child of a defector, she worried so about others.
I felt sorrow at how much discrimination other North Korean teen defectors may
have experienced and may now be living with.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">I felt many emotions interviewing thirteen year old. Yeonhee who
seemed as mature as a high school student. I realized that our society is still
inhospitable to North Korean defectors and their children. I reflected that,
although we despise being abused by power, members of our society may be carelessly
abusing North Korean defectors. In order to live equally as neighbors, without
discrimination, our whole society must make every effort to accomplish a paradigm
shift.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">Chinese immigrant? North Korean defector? Aren't they the same?


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">With concerns from my first interview, I began the second. I saw
liveliness in the interviewee‘s face as she walked in. Introducing herself
as Myungjoo Kim (pseudonym), she served as a deaconess at Durihana International
School; she worked hard for the alternative school, taking on many roles such
as dorm administration, cafeteria management, and piano teacher. Hearing her
cheerful answers made my nervousness disappear. She allowed me to record her
interview bur said that she would prefer not to take photos. She said “[she]
still had family in North Korea.” Her reply tugged at my heart.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Deaconess Myungjoo defected to China in 1998 at age 19. She stayed
in China for -bout nine years until she met the pastor of Durihana International
School and then entered South Korea. She had studied at an art school hat focused
on fine arcs, instrumental music, lance, and speech (oratory, demagogy). In
North Korea, this school was famous and well-known to secure graduates a stable
job as a music teacher, which made her parents very proud.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">However there, she explained, that the dorm conditions were very
poor. Every meal consisted of porridge made of rotten flour. There was no heating
system, even in the midst of winter; she had to wash her face (and even fabric
sanitary pads) in cold water. Living for four years in this environment, she
gradually became ill with nephritis. Fortunately, her mother's relatives' homes
were close to the border of China. She had heard that she could earn a lot of
money in China, so she escaped North Korea to China.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">She believed that the people from other countries could never
imagine tilt horrors draught by Kim Il Sung and Kim long Il in North Korea.
In North Korea, Kim Il Sung and Kim long Il are like gods. She said that loyalty
was created and transferred through numerous loyalty oaths; if you’re born
and raised there, you assumed that the system was a natural one. It was sad
to hear that she could not question or doubt the North Korean regime. She had
only learned about the North Korean system and never was taught about political
systems outside of North Korea. This reminded me of the austerity of the North
Korean system.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">When asked about any hardships experienced when she came to South
Korea, she touched my heart.
color="purple">“Hardships in South Korea?” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> It is a luxury to think that there are hardships in South Korea!
She could not complain because she came safely to South Korea from North Korea.
In South Korea, unlike North Korea, one can earn as much as one works. The relationship
between the government and an individual, or between two individuals, was very
transparent. However, when people ask her,
color="purple">“Are you Korean Chinese or a North Korean defector? Aren't
they both the same?”
color="navy"> she felt ostracized.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Currently thirty-nine years old, the deaconess explained that
she was a mother of two. She speaks freely with her mother in law, who is in
her 70s, The present North Korea is very similar to South Korea in the 1960’s
to 1980's. She expressed her concerns about the difficulties North Korean defectors
have in adapting to South Korea. Governmental systems are of vital importance
for North Korean teen defectors and the North Korean defector community; she
expressed sadness at the lack of governmental support tor children born to a
Chinese father and a North Korean mother. The government provides no financial
support for these children. Their identity crisis of being chinese, North Korean,
and South Korean, is substantial and they ready have nowhere to go. I realized
that the current government welfare system tor North Korean defectors needed
to be updated for the urgency for a support for people who were born in China.


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="purple">“ color="purple">South Koreans' views of North Korean defectors have changed
a lot. In the past, South Koreans were more loving and affectionate toward them.
Now, I no longer feel that sympathy from young adults currently in their 20's
and 30's. Aren't we part of a single nation? Shouldn't we coexist? Wouldn't
we have been desperate to flee our motherland North Korea also and risk our
lives as they have? North Korean defectors are truly a wounded people. I plead
that more affluent, comfortable South Koreans embrace North Korean defectors.
lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="purple">”


lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">After hearing the deaconess’ words, I realized the importance
of empathy rather than pity tor thee North Korean defectors. We all must strive
to make a society that we can live in.


     
 

 

 
 
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