President Park Advocates for North Koreans To Defect to the ROK
It is great to finally see a South Korean leader openly advocate for North Korean citizens to stand up to the Kim Jong-un regime by voting with their feet:
President Park Geun-hye issued a blunt message to urge North Korean soldiers and citizens to defect to the South, inviting criticisms from liberal politicians over her provocativeness while fueling speculations about conditions in the reclusive communist regime.
Park made the comment in a speech at a ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday. In the speech, she addressed the latest security crisis caused by the Kim Jong-un regime’s nuclear and missile development and the South’s determination to counter it.
Park made perhaps the most provocative proposal by far to North Koreans. “Today, I want to clearly tell the reality that the North Korean regime is facing to the North Korean authorities, military and people,” she said, stressing that it is a misunderstanding and miscalculation of the young North Korean ruler to expect to achieve security and internal unity by demonstrating its nuclear and missile capabilities and escalating military tensions.
She noted that the international community is reacting differently from the past to the North’s provocations and the North is facing strengthened pressures and sanctions, while the negotiation stage has ended.
She, then, directly addressed the North Korean people. “We know the brutal reality that you are facing now. The international community is also seriously concerned about the North Korean regime’s human rights abuses.”
Promising that the South will do its best to end the North’s provocations and inhumane rule, Park said, “We will leave the path open for the North Korean people to find hope and life. Come to the free land of the Republic of Korea at any time.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
President Park, BUILD THAT WALL!
…oh… wait. It is already built.
…and, I might add, it does a damn fine job.
…and, just out of curiosity, what do we do with North Korea defectors once they come?
Before encouraging North Koreans to defect figure out a better way for detectors to integrate in South Korea. Having more of them without fixing this problem is a disservice to them.
Concurred. I saw where up to a fifth of the North Koreans in the South are dissatisfied with their situation and want to return to the North.
Is President Park going to go after those nK sympathizers in South Korea (both government and private) who harass defectors?
I saw a defector’s response on that very same poll you talk about. He examined the questions and they were designed to conclude a desired result by the press. The defectors were asked, “would you like to go back to North Korea ?”. Of course many defectors would like to go back to visit their hometowns and see their loved ones whom they left behind. Who wouldn’t? This is how Korean press manipulate polls to cause controversies and sell sensational stories.
No sane North Koreansane want to live in North Korea under the current regime. This is just bad mouthing the North Korean defectors, painting them as disgruntled immigrants rather than refugees fleeing for their lives.
Maybe President Park should consider an exchange program of having one Kim regime sympathizer immigrate to NK in return for every defector. 😉
Regardless of who is right, things could be done better to help these people integrate.
Let them go.
They send them to Hanawon for three months and teach them about South Korean society and provide vocational training. After they leave Hanawon, they get housing support for the next five years, additional vocational training, employers are given incentives to hire them (they get a subsidy if they hire a North Korean defector). Defectors get special admissions and transfers to schools and tuition support. There are numerous community services at the local level provided specifically for defectors. And there is also the all the services available through the North Korean Refugees Foundation. Not to mention – the defectors who have already been here for a while are more than happy to teach the newbies how to game the system for even more benefits.
The South Korean government bends over backwards to set these defectors up for success. The problem is that many of them have a hard time adapting to life in a place where you have to work and provide for yourself – something that’s difficult to do when all you’ve ever known is life in North Korea for your entire life.
And just for the sake of discussion – compare what the defectors get in South Korea to what a family fresh off the boat from South Korea gets when they land in America (they get NOTHING). And yet, most of those immigrating to America do very well in spite of not being able to speak English, not receiving a penny in government assistance, and not receiving any training about how to make it in American society.