Ansong, July 18: Almost all North Korean refugees start their new lives in South Korea by learning to use computers, ATMs and washing machines.
“Normal citizens [in North Korea] are not permitted to possess computers or even fax machines,” explained 62-year-old Kim, a former Pyongyang resident who fled to the South.
After arriving from the North in February, Kim, who is not allowed to disclose his full name for security reasons, has now begun to use a computer for the first time in his life.
Kim is one of roughly 16,000 North Korean refugees who, according to official data, have fled to the South since the end of the Korean War (1950-53).
However, the vast majority of them only arrived in recent years as conditions in the isolated and impoverished north deteriorated.
For them, being accepted by wealthy and Western-oriented South Korea is like discovering a new world that warrants a time-consuming and often difficult integration process.
Kim lives with some 750 other refugees in Hanawon, a camp about 80 kilometres south of Seoul near the town of Ansong.
More than 70 per cent of them are women and girls.
New arrivals undergo some 50 hours of medical examinations and psychological counselling.
Another 130 hours are dedicated to programmes designed to aid their integration in their new home.
But they are also confronted with interviews administered by South Korea’s Secret Service because the authorities want to ensure that there are no spies or Chinese nationals posing as refugees among them.
Besides accommodation, Hanawon, which translates as “House of Unity,” also has a medical and dental clinic, school buildings, a library, workshops, canteens and facilities for social gatherings and religious worship.
The refugees hear about urban life, attend courses about the market economy and learn how to apply for jobs.
They also are tutored in activities such as surfing the internet and using household appliances and banking machines. There are also vocational training courses including sewing or making jewellery.
Language courses are also important because the refugees are unfamiliar with many modern words commonly used in an industrial society.
Learning how to use appliances is a comparatively small challenge, but many refugees suffer from anxiety, stress and guilt, which often manifest themselves in physical symptoms.
“Many suffer from nightmares, experience chest pressure or breathing problems and many will need long-term therapy,” said one of Hanawon’s psychiatrists, Dr Jun Jin Yong.
Then there is the homesickness. Most of the refugees left families behind.
“I miss my son so very much, but I also know that all my tears cannot help me [to get him back],” a refugee named Mrs Lim told a group of visiting South Korean and foreign journalists.
She decided to flee after the authorities learned that she had watched a smuggled South Korean video, which is strictly prohibited and punished harshly.
Terrified, Lim fled across the border into China and after several stopovers in South-East Asian nations finally arrived in South Korea.
Her compatriot Kim, who once worked in Russia as an engineer, has a similar story to tell.
“The authorities threatened me because I criticized socialism,” he said, adding that he was warned that he would die if he went to prison.
“So I fled,” he said, first to China and then on to Russia before he eventually reached Hanawon.
The main problem is the refugees’ inability to assimilate. In communist North Korea they are told what to do, but in the South they are initially helpless when confronted with competition pressure.
Former North Korean pianist Choi Cheol Woong, who is regarded as successfully integrated, confirmed that an assimilation problem exists.
“The social discrimination and bias of the South Koreans was more difficult to bear than being poor [back in the North],” the 35-year-old said after a recent concert he gave at Hanawon.
After completing their training, each refugee receives 19 million won (about 15,000 dollars) and can settle anywhere in the country, although most opt for Seoul, where they expect to find better job opportunities.
“But many of them tend to spend all their money as soon as they have left us,” said Hanawon’s director-general, Youn Miryang.
—–Agencies