National Identity and gender identity of women defected from North Korea

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1 National Identity and gender identity of women defected from North Korea Minjeoung Kim(University of Seoul) I. Introduction In 2013, defected people from North Korea who reside in South Korea exceeded 20,000. Among them women are more than 50%. While they are integrated into Korean society, their national identity would be a crucial point for their integration and also for the Korean society. Moreover, when unified, they will play a substantially important role for the social integration after unification. In this regard, the factors to affect the formation of national identity in female defectors is worth to be studied. This study tries to trace the process of the adaptation and socialization of defected women into Korean society and investigates the factors to affect the formation of national identity according to the type of path to enter into Korea and to the process of integration into Korean society. And also this paper traces their gender identity and its change after leaving North Korea. This is a possibility for women defectors to be integrated into Korean society. For this purpose, existed studies are examined for this regard and two female defectors were interviewed. One left North Korea alone at the age of 21 for her South Korean boy friend and now university student and the other defected North Korea for money to leave her 15 year-old-son and now works for a factory living with her new Chosunjok husband and a daughter. These two different cases show that the different personal situation makes them have different view toward Korea and different orientation of gender identity. II. Theoretical Approach Simmel suggested that an immigrated worker is regarded as a stranger who does not completely overcome the separation of coming and going. A migrator keeps a distance from the settled society and culture, not integrating into it and is possible to involve foreign elements into it. A migrator interprets the immigrated society with his/her original view which 1

2 was imprinted in his/her mind, so he/she asks a heterogeneous life style of immigrated society. He/she may remain permanently stranger even though he/she can communicate freely and understand a new life style. A defected woman from North Korea can be categorized into this type of immigrated worker, and she feels lonely, isolated even though she can communicate with Korean. However it depends on the formation of family in Korean society. It is assumed that if she marries to a Korean man, she can adopt Korean culture and society more voluntarily and may not feel any more stranger. In other words, she can have a new identity with the formation of Korean family and with the sense of belonging in a Korean family. For this regard, the Korean government should give opportunity to have a sense of belonging in a Korean society for defected women who do not have an opportunity to get married to a Korean man. Mead(1963) understands that personal identity is formed through one s entire life. The personal identity is not a fixed one but is constituted. The constitution of one s personal identity is based on the mutual recognition. This argument leads to the theory of the struggle for the recognition to understand one s personal identity(honneth 1992). Mead explains that one forms the own identity through the intersubjective recognition. The continuous interaction with others in society is an important socialization for an individual to understand social demand to one s own itself and to conflict, to recognize, to reconcile social demand with one s own will and established identity. Finally the process of the inter-recognition with others leads the immigrated to form a new identity. Honneth calls this process as a struggle for the recognition. The minority such as immigrated people and defected people needs social interrecognition to form a new national identity but usually the defected people feel isolated and sometimes ignored by the original people so when the minority recognizes its identity in a new society or the minority gets recognized by others, the new identity formation can be succeeded. The defected women feel usually isolated, ignored and shrunken. The Korean government should try to give them an opportunity to feel recognized by the society or by the others. The formation of a new identity depends on the mobility, the voluntariness and the permanence(choi, Cho 2011). The mobility means the transfer to a new society and culture, the voluntariness means the voluntary will to move to a new society and the permanence means the duration of the settlement in a new society. Defected people transferred to a strange society even though they moved to some degree voluntarily and it seems that they live 2

3 permanently in Korean society. In this situation, they have different choice. One is that they decide to live here with a strong identity; they try to belong to Korean society, throwing out the defected identity. Sometimes they desire not to be detected defected people. Second choice is that they hope to live in another country such as US where nobody knows who they are. Gender identity of defected women is transformed through three steps(lee 2011). In First step they have a tradition gender orientation when they are in North Korea, and in second step, when they settled in China, they are on a more independent situation materially but because usually they are in China illegally they need an aid of local people-usually a Chinese husband - about the status. In third step, in South Korea, they embed a new gender relation of Korean society but in the case that they left a family in North Korea, they are hard to abandon the traditional family relation. The Korean society offers an opportunity to build a new gender relation especially when they support their family materially but keep the established family relation remaining in North Korean. III. Case study-two defected women interviewed 1. OOO 26 year-old university student who settled down Korea since She left North Korea when she was 21 year for her boy friend who met her in a third country when she worked there. She came to Korea for seeking her love at the risk of her death. Now she attends a university and lives with her boy friend family. Her living depends on her boy friend. Her national identity is dual. She thinks that she is North Korean and South Korean. But when the North Korea and South Korea defeat in a case of Football game, she cheers for North Korea. She has dual feeling toward North Korea, hoping the collapse of North Korean government but desiring North Korean people to live well. She wants to live in another country such as US because in South Korea, everybody knows that she is from North Korea and she thinks that they disdain her because she is from a poor country. She feels also timid and shrunken because South Korean people are more knowledgeable, educated than her. Therefore she wants to live in another country where nobody knows her and that will make her freer. 3

4 It seems to her that South Korea is also her country because she lives in South Korea which is a place where she lives from now on. She has managed a new family with a Korean boy friend and his family who supports her financially. Her view toward South Korea changed totally after the encounter of her boy friend. She dreamt to marry to a Korean famous actor after watching Korean drama in North Korea, and when she was working in a third country she envied to be a South Korean so it was not difficult to accept Korean society and Korean family. However she thinks that she cannot belong to South Korean society because original people know that she comes from North Korea because of her original accent and the unique number of resident registration for defected people. She reflects and even criticizes Korean society with her original view such as so cold. She may have dual and ambivalent feeling toward Korean societyhoping to be a full citizen of Korean society but a strong attachment toward North Korean society. The sense of belonging to Korean society is formal but the attachment toward North Korean is emotional. She does not change her gender orientation. In North Korea, she felt comfortable about the women s traditional role in society; she did not resist it and could not find out any conflict in the role. In South Korea, she knows different orientation of gender relations but she does adhere to the tradition value. She hopes to manage a small café after the university graduation and to form a family raising children to stay at home. She thinks that working outside to earn a life is a shame; to stay at home is more precious. She prefers a conservative man to step into her private life because she interprets this style because he cares and loves her. She left North Korea to meet her boy friend with his help, and she did not meet any difficulty to enter into Korea except her determination to prepare death. So she has been under man s umbrella all the time, and she did not have chance to be independent to manage her life. Besides the family, she has learned individual value that her life is more important than the motherland, the state is nothing to her. From her case, an important argument can be drown that to form a new gender orientation, it is important to stay in China for a while to have experience to succeed to manage her life and to find out the ability to manage life independently. Without this experience, even though exposed in gender equal society, it is not easy to form a new gender role. 4

5 2. OOO 44 year-old factory worker who settled down Korean society since She lived in a local and distance village of North Korea and has a 15 year-old son and husband. Her husband had affair with a widow of two daughters. Before knowing his affair, she earned a lot of money in free black market but after knowing his affair, she abstained from business and lost her money. She decided to earn money in China so she went to China two times with the governmental permission but last time she stayed there after the expiration of her permission. She was repatriated to North Korea and went to jail. She decided to go to China to earn money without the permission. But without the permission, it was not easy to manage life apart from earning money, so she decided to go to Korea. In China, for a stable status, she married to a Chosunjok and after entering into Korea, she invited her Chosunjok husband and her daughter who was born in China. Now she lives with this family and works for a factory. The work is hard but she is happy besides her left son in North Korea. She hopes to send money to her son of North Korea. She does not understand what identity is. In North Korea, she graduated the middle school and she was athlete. She was not exposed to any political, social life, so her only hope is money. She likes Korean society where she can work as long as she can, and where she makes money as long as she works. She thinks that Korea is a good place to come true one s dream. If she came to Korean in her earlier age, it would be better to have dream and to come true her dream. Because she does not have any concept of politics and citizenship, she never participated in elections. She thinks that the politics is a fight, and doubts the unification because it may not be possible to reconcile South and North Koreans for whom fight each other inside country. She works outside to make money and her husband stays at home as housewife. When she is at home, she does not do domestic work because she wants to rest. In North Korea, she thought that the traditional women s role was and did not ask its rationality. When her husband had affair and hit her, she did not fight against him. In China, she did all house chore because her status was dependent on her Chosunjok husband. But she made money and felt to be able to do anything to make money so decided to go to Korea. 5

6 IV. Conclusion The formation of new national identity depends on the formal situation of defected women. The woman who does not have attachment to North Korea with several reasons, and who defected North Korea because of material reason, it is hard to build a new national identity in Korea. Her sole interest is money and she does not have room for abstract concept such as national identity. Second factor to form a new national identity is related to education in Korea. Usually when they come to Korea in their aged year, they don t have chance to socialize abstract concepts such as identity but when they attend university or other formal education, they have chance to think about who I am etc. To form a new gender orientation, the experience to stay in China is important. The harsh experience to overcome the difficult situation in China may help to understand their independent ability and to experience new social role besides the traditional gender role. This experience helps to form a new gender identity in Korean Society. References Giddens, Anthony Modernity and Self-Identity. Standford University Press Honneth, Axel The Struggle for Recognition. Polity Press Mead, George Herbert Mind, Self and Society. University of Chicago Press Simmel, George On individuality and social forms. University of Chicago Press Yang, Chenming North Koreans in China: Challenges and Solution National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea. International Symposium on North Korean Human rights Issues in Seoul. Lee, Heeyoung, Talbuk-Geulhonijoo-Ijoonodongeui Kyochajeok Keonghumgua Jeongcheseungsui Beunwi( 탈북 - 결혼이주 - 이주노동의교차적경험과정체성의변위 ) Hyundai 6

7 sahoiwa Damunhwa ( 현대사회와다문화 )2:1 Choi, Daesuk, Cho, Eunhee, 2011, Talbukdaehaksangeui Kuka Jeonchesunggwa Byunwha( 탁북대학 생들의국가정체성형성과변화 Bukhanyeonguhakwoibo( 북한연구학회보 ) 14:2 7