North Korean Defectors In Diaspora

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.

Politics of the North Korean Diaspora examines how authoritarian security concerns shape global diaspora politics. Empirically, it traces the recent emergence of a North Korean diaspora – a globally-dispersed population of North Korean émigrés – and argues that the non-democratic nature of the DPRK homeland regime fundamentally shapes diasporic politics. Pyongyang perceives the diaspora as a threat to regime security, and attempts to dissuade emigration, de-legitimate diasporic voices, and deter or disrupt diasporic political activity, including through extraterritorial violence and transnational repression. This, in turn, shapes the North Korean diaspora's perceptions of citizenship and patterns of diasporic political engagement: North Korean émigrés have internalized many host country norms, particularly the civil and participatory dimensions of democratic citizenship, and émigrés have played important roles in both host-country and global politics. This Element provides new empirical evidence on the North Korean diaspora; demonstrates that regime type is an important, understudied factor shaping transnational and diasporic politics; and contributes to our understanding of comparative authoritarianism's global impact.

Recent North Korean diaspora has given rise to female refugee groups fighting for the protection of women’s rights. Presenting in-depth accounts of North Korean women defectors living in the UK, this book examines how their harrowing experiences have become an impetus for their activism. The author also reveals how their utopian dream of a better future for fellow North Korean women is vital in their activism. Unique in its focus on the intersections between gender, politics, activism and mobility, Lim's illuminating work will inform debates on activism and human rights internationally.

Study on 'Humanities for Unification' started to find a new paradigm for unification under the reality of separated nation. Existing discussions about unification is conducting based on the premise of systematic, politic, and economic integration, and the reality is that it actually is fluctuating by the times. Humanities for Unification agreed on that the social-scientific discussion on unification has political and ideological limitations. Therefore, the Humanities for Unification can be a new field of study trying to identify unification issue in Korean peninsula and to find solutions for the issue based on people-centered idea of humanism. Human-centered discussion on unification can be understood as a concept largely expanded from the existing discussion on the issue. That is, the concept is not limited in Korean peninsula geographically but to include all Korean Diaspora. Thus, it includes both South and North Koreans as well as 7 millions of Korean people all over the world. Furthermore, it is not just satisfied with research activity only focusing on 'Unification as a result' but to aim at 'Unification as a whole process'. Therefore, the concept aims at not only the point of unification but also pursues integration of people which must be solved in the course of social integration after the unification. Thus, Humanities for Unification suggests 'communication, healing, and integration' as the main methodology. Based on spirit of humanism, it applies communication among social classes as well as individuals as the primary method. This kind of communication is possible by accepting difference between you and I and exploring common factors in the difference and by utilizing those factors. To do that, we need to identify reality of division trauma and to find out solutions to cure it. First of all, we can cure the division trauma that can be a cause of confliction between people by taking division narrative, which is hidden in the history, in which we gave unforgettable wound each other, out to the world and by suggesting combined narrative as a solution. And by intergrating systems and ideologies settled down in our society and by managing common things and differences in ideology, emotion and in living that lie in our everyday life, we hope that the integration of life can be expanded to social integration.

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.

Recent North Korean diaspora has given rise to female refugee groups fighting for the protection of women’s rights. Presenting in-depth accounts of North Korean women defectors living in the UK, this book examines how their harrowing experiences have become an impetus for their activism. The author also reveals how their utopian dream of a better future for fellow North Korean women is vital in their activism. Unique in its focus on the intersections between gender, politics, activism and mobility, Lim's illuminating work will inform debates on activism and human rights internationally.

By drawing attention to mobility in subjectivity - to the contested nature of subjectivity in the processes of mobility - this volume seeks to connect the experiences of the Korean diaspora with those of the homeland, thereby enriching an understanding of Korean nationalism from its flip side.