Problems Faced by North Korean Children
By Benjamin Yoon, NKHR
It’s been two years since we first started activities to help former North Korean children adapt themselves in their new lives in South Korea. Eleven undergraduates of Korea University helped eight former North Korean teenagers by visiting their homes once a week for the purpose of familiarizing themselves to these former North Korean children’s parents, which, as they found out later, would be difficult for various reasons; for one thing, meeting with their parents, who were busy in their business, was not available and for another, having conversation in depth was not possible for the invisible gap coming from age and background.
We found out that it is not easier than we’ve thought for former North Korean children to adapt themselves in the new environment. Former North Korean children are still required to study in an academy or a private institute, but most of them usually absorb at most half of the lecture that the instructor delivers to them because of either the differences in intonation or the fact that the language used by South Korean have so many new terms generated from foreign languages. Their dialogue, which differentiates them from other classmates, gets caused south Korean student to make fun of them. The former North Korean children, who can´t catch up with up-to-date entertainment news, fail to get along with South Korean children’s conversation. Under these circumstances, majority of former North Korean children can´t find themselves enjoy school life and become outsiders, just fooling around their school.
We finally changed our goal from gaining confidence from the North Korean parents to directly approaching North Korean children. Needless to say, such social delinquencies as violence, crimes, and committing suicide, were main causes. Worrying about the possibility that former North Korean children may become mafia in South Korea if they are abandoned without being paid an attention, we started to organize programs, such as ‘one to one guide, ‘tutoring,’ and ‘Ha-Na-Won program,’ after educating South Korean undergraduates.
We finally came up with holding the Summer School for former North Korean children, which fortunately got positive feedback from participants, under this purpose, and satisfied with the result that most North Korean children graduated all the difficult courses without failure. Teachers and undergraduates who put their efforts in this program, could get a sense of reward, seeing that the children´s attitudes are changing and their aspiration toward learning lessons are increasing. This is why we reserved to hold the Winter School.
