this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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[–] UnderpantsWeevil 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

About 18% of North Korean defectors regret it.

Around 20% of defectors have considered returning to North Korea. But that has less to do with the appeal of the North than the poor treatment of expats in the South.

The South Korean immigration and labor laws make finding work south of the border incredibly difficult. North Korean expats are confined to menial service sector and grueling industrial work while being largely cut out of South Korean social life due to heavy stigmas against them. Its an incredibly hard life and not remotely like the glamorous existence of social elites that Americans claim drive the periodic defections.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They need access to a better place. I suppose they just get financially stuck in S Korea? Or do the move on to other countries too, more willing to give them a chance?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

North Korean expats are functionally stateless, so it is very difficult to leave South Korea even when they do have money.

The largest portion of the Korean diaspora live in China and Russia.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Why don’t we have a law for North Korea like the Cuban Adjustment Act that allows anyone who makes it out of the country to quickly become a permanent resident, without regard for how they got out of their country. The situation seems fairly similar, where encouraging more defectors makes the target country look bad, and it can deprive them of workers.

[–] someacnt_ 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I suppose the US, but it would probably have to involve us paying for moving them to the US from South Korea. Otherwise South Korea could have such a program so that they can become residents with actual rights (or maybe they already do).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

We (US) could run the program from our embassy. Unsure how we’d help them get money though. Can the US embassy in SK permit people to work for US companies or something, to open up a portion of the market for these people to legally work?

I guess I’m not so clear on what portion of their fucked status is coming from law, what’s coming from culture, and what’s just the desperation of total poverty as a result of arriving with nothing.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil -1 points 4 months ago

Because South Koreans don't have ambitions of building up a large militant ex-pat community to try a Bay of Pigs on Pyongyang.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Is it difficult because airlines and whatnot won’t carry them, or because the receiving country won’t let them immigrate due to being “stateless”?

Are they stateless in a way someone coming from Bolivia to the US isn’t, because NK’s outside of some globally-recognized state system? I’ve never considered this before.