North Korean Defectors in a New and Competitive Society
North Korean Defectors in a New and Competitive Society

Author: Ahlam Lee

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2015-12-03

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 0739192671

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Ongoing ideological or political conflicts in the modern world have led to appalling human rights violations against North Korean defectors who attempt to escape from their repressive country and seek freedom. Although some North Korean defectors have survived the life-threatening escape journey and arrived in free countries, their overwhelming challenges have not yet ended, as they now face a range of issues and challenges in resettlement, adjustment, and learning process in new and competitive societies. North Korean Defectors in a New and Competitive Society articulates several hurdles that North Korean defectors encounter, from their long journey of escape to assimilation in their new homes. This book seeks to raise international awareness of human rights violations against North Koreans, and to emphasize the importance of helping them overcome the substantial cultural gaps between North Korea and their new homes.

North Korean Defectors in Diaspora
North Korean Defectors in Diaspora

Author: HaeRan Shin

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-03-14

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1793651507

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This edited collection investigates the mobilities, resettlement practices, and identities of North Korean defectors who have relocated to the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. The contributors to this volume examine the complex nature of defection from North Korea, highlighting the ways in which defectors renegotiate their identities in order to adapt and settle in new societies as well as the implications these differing narratives have on future policy decisions.

Ask A North Korean
Ask A North Korean

Author: Daniel Tudor

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2018-03-20

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1462919863

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"In his new book, Ask a North Korean, Daniel Tudor--a former Economist journalist and current Korean beer entrepreneur-- wants people to understand the true lives of everyday North Koreans. Using translated essays written by defectors, the book covers topics from politics to pornography." -- The Boston Globe Understanding North Korean Through the Eyes of Defectors. The weekly column Ask A North Korean, published by NK News, invites readers from around the world to pose questions to North Korean defectors. Adapted from the long-running column, these fascinating interviews provide authentic firsthand testimonies about life in North Korea and what is really happening inside the "Hermit Kingdom." North Korean contributors to this book include: "Seong" who went to South Korea after dropping out during his final year of university. He is now training to be an elementary school teacher. "Kang" who left North Korea in 2005. He now lives in London, England. "Cheol" who was from South Hamgyeong in North Korea and is now a second-year university student in Seoul. "Park" worked and studied in Pyongyang before defecting to the U.S. in 2011. He is now studying at a U.S. college. Ask A North Korean sheds critical light on all aspects of North Korean politics and society and shows that, even in the world's most authoritarian regime, life goes on in ways that are very different from what outsiders may think.

Interviews with North Korean Defectors
Interviews with North Korean Defectors

Author: Lim Il

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-07-21

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1000401782

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Originally compiled and written by North Korean defector and author Lim Il, this English-language edition, thoroughly annotated by Dr. Adam Zulawnik, is a fascinating collection of 34 interviews with highly prominent North Korean defectors residing in South Korea, ranging from religious figures, to artists, politicians, North Korea experts, and even divers and subway train operators. The 33 interviews herein are listed chronologically according to the interviewees' date of arrival to South Korea and span almost 70 years. The book also includes six special columns addressing key issues pertaining to North Korean defectors and their lives in South Korea, such as the relationship between North Korean defectors and their South Korean counterparts (South Korean defectors to North Korea; nomenclature (how North Korean defectors have been referred to in South Korean society over time); arrival and settlement provisions from the South Korean government; the nuanced difference between defectors, defector-residents, and the displaced; North Korean defector-residents and their position in South Korean politics; and a short biography of five notable North Korean defector-residents who were not interviewed. The English translation also contains an exclusive 34th interview with Lim Il, the source text author which was carried out towards the end of the project in October 2020. The book is a valuable testament to North Korean defector-residents and unique in that it provides a candid account of each individual’s experience. It will prove to be especially useful to students and scholars seeking to understand the complex dynamics of North Korean society and the status of exiles in South Korea, and a vital resource for students of Korean Studies.

The Real North Korea
The Real North Korea

Author: Andrei Lankov

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0199390037

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In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive

De-Bordering Korea
De-Bordering Korea

Author: Valérie Gelézeau

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1136192522

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As tensions remain on the Korean peninsula, this book looks back on the decade of improved inter-Korean relations and engagement between 1998 and 2008, now known as the ‘Sunshine Policy’ era. Moving beyond traditional economic and political perspectives, it explores how this decade of intensified cooperation both affected and reshaped existing physical, social and mental boundaries between the two Koreas, and how this ‘de-bordering’ and ‘re-bordering’ has changed the respective attitudes towards the other. Based around three key themes, ‘Space’, ‘People’, and ‘Representations’, this book looks at the tangible and intangible areas of contact created by North-South engagement during the years of the Sunshine Policy. ‘Space’ focuses on the border regions and discusses how the border reflects the dynamics of multiple types of exchanges and connections between the two Koreas, as well as the new territorial structures these have created. ‘People’ addresses issues in human interactions and social organizations, looking at North Korean defectors in the South, shifting patterns of North-South competition in the ‘Korean’ diaspora of post-Soviet Central Asia, and the actual and physical presence of the Other in various social settings. Finally, ‘Representations’ analyses the image of the other Korea as it is produced, circulated, altered/falsified and received (or not) on either side of the Korean border. The contributors to this volume draw on a broad spectrum of disciplines ranging from geography, anthropology and archaeology, to media studies, history and sociology, in order to show how the division between North and South Korea functions as an essential matrix for geographical, social and psychological structures on both sides of the border. As such, this book will appeal to students and scholars from numerous fields of study, including Korean studies, Korean culture and society, and international relations more broadly.

Twice Illegal
Twice Illegal

Author: Hien Ju Park

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9781124677644

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This study discusses the incorporation prospects of North Korean defectors in the U.S. by examining their survival toolkit which comes in two forms: Their precarious North Korean defector identity which elicits human rights concerns at the U.S. foreign policy level, and their North Korean identity which creates networking ties with Korean-Americans based on a common ethnicity. Hence, the main focus of this study is twofold: To provide contextual background against which policies for their refugee status can be discussed, and to describe and explain the social capital associated with their distinct Korean identity. Drawing from newspaper content analysis, five years of ethnographic research, and in-depth interviews with thirty-one North Korean defectors in the U.S., this study demonstrates how the Korean ethnicity, ethnic networks, and the Korean-American community and ethnic capital it shares, have been instrumental in North Korean incorporation. This study also ponders how such incorporation efforts - and the social capital they accumulated - would implicate policies of inclusion for North Korea.

North Korea Confidential
North Korea Confidential

Author: Daniel Tudor

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-11

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780804852265

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What is life in North Korea really like? This fascinating book by celebrated journalists Daniel Tudor and James Pearson explores that very question. The authors interview experts and tap a broad variety of sources to provide a startling insider's view of the secretive North Korean society, including: Members of Pyongyang's ruling families Defectors from different periods and regions Foreign diplomats and NGOs with years of experience in the country Cross-border traders from neighboring China Textual accounts appearing in English, Korean and Chinese sources This book reveals that ordinary North Koreans, poor and rich alike, enjoy listening to K-pop music and are addicted to South Korean TV dramas--in direct contravention of government dictates. Pirated foreign movies and shows--American, South Korean and Chinese--are often smuggled into the country and sold. Such snippets of information help the reader understand that North Korea is undergoing dynamic changes, affecting the 24 million people who call it home. This new edition is updated with an afterword by the authors that touches on Kim Jong-un's recent meetings with Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in. While the new foreword by Andray Abrahamian--a member of the U.S. National Committee on North Korea--offers a detailed analysis of North Korea's political discourse, changes in economic policy, and the rise and fall of optimism within the country since 2018.

Witness to Transformation
Witness to Transformation

Author: Stephan Haggard

Publisher: Peterson Institute

Published: 2010-07-20

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0881325155

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"Human rights and the protection of refugees is not a concern of left or right, or of the US only; it is an issue of importance to all Koreans, and indeed all countries. Haggard and Noland provide compelling evidence of the ongoing transformation of North Korean society and offer thoughtful proposals as to how the outside world might facilitate peaceful evolution."--Yoon Young-kwan, former Foreign Minister, Rob Moo-byun government --Book Jacket