hankyoreh

The number of North Korean defectors that have entered South Korea since the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War has surpassed 10,000. Of this group, about 16.6 percent are aged 25 or younger.

These youths will lead the era of reunification with South Korea. Their adaption to a new society has brought them feelings of both excitement and fear, happiness and sorrow, and hope and confusion. What will their lives be like from today forward?

On February 17, a day before Lunar New Year’s Day, there was no sign of the approaching holiday at the Nowon district apartment of 16-year-old Yeong-sik (not his real name). Yeong-sik’s mother, 42, who came to South Korea with Yeong-sik and an 11-year-old daughter in September last year, said that the traditional ancestor-worship services widely performed during the New Year’s holiday in South Korea were not common in the North. Her family has not yet fully adapted to South Korean society, as they have only been living in South Korea for 52 days since leaving Hanawon, a state-run settlement facility for defectors.

While staying at the South Korean consulate in Shenyang in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Yeong-sik thought, "If we go to South Korea, we will become happy unconditionally." He heard that South Korean society provides defectors with a car and a maid, and he believed it.

However, when he left Hanawon, he began to worry about the future, after coming to the realization that it is hard even for South Korean people to succeed, and that his family’s situation would be even worse. He said emotionlessly, "I left Hanawon knowing the life here would not be easy."

He was right. He was disappointed immediately when he saw the apartment where his family was going to live. The floor was filthy, and the toilet rattled whenever it was flushed. It took two days for the family to clean the apartment. The apartment’s "veranda" had no windows.

However, what made Yeong-sik even more sad was the fact that no one was there to welcome them to their new home. The reality of South Korea, with its urban jungles and population of 45 million, was that no one knew about their existence.

The daily existence in South Korea, completely different from what he had expected, began to hit home. In North Korea, they drank water from natural sources, but in South Korea, they had to buy it in bottles. Everywhere they went, they had to pay transportation fare.

Yeong-sik was not unhappy all the time. He said that he is satisfied with the feeling of freedom he has, wherever he goes or whatever he does. He is happy because he can go anywhere he wants. The Internet, that so-called limitless sea of information, is another merit of South Korean society, he said.

He opens his bag and shows a few books which he has borrowed from the local library. All of them are English language titles. His dream is to study in a foreign country after graduating from college in South Korea. His ultimate goal is to establish a large trading company in North Korea. For this purpose, he should first and foremost learn English. Thus the TOEIC book weighing down his bag.

Yeong-sik will enter a nearby middle school as a second-year student next month. He laughed, saying, "I want to make many friends."

He has another ambition for his school life. "[South Koreans] think that North Korean defectors who enter ordinary schools will drop out due to the difficulty of adaptation, but I want to show that this is not true."

However, he may not know that one of reasons his mother is working at a restaurant for five hours every night is to earn money to buy him a school uniform, which costs over 300,000 won (US$325).

His first steps in South Korean society are necessarily heavier than those of teenagers born in the South. During the interview, he repeatedly said, "I must do well." His words expressed both a dream and a fear for his future.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]