Life without a safety net: North Korean defector window cleaner falls to his death in Incheon

Posted on : 2016-08-18 17:03 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Family of defector who was a doctor in North Korea says they are postponing funeral until company apologizes
A journal kept by a North Korean defector surnamed Kim
A journal kept by a North Korean defector surnamed Kim

A man in his forties who defected from North Korea to find treatment for his wife’s illness fell to his death recently while cleaning a building in Incheon without safety gear. The man was a doctor who graduated from medical school in North Korea.

The 48-year-old resident of Incheon’s Southeast district, identified by the surname Kim, was cleaning interior windows in the POSCO R&D Center in Songdo at around 8:30 am on Aug. 13 when he fell to his death from the second floor to the first basement level, a distance of 14 meters.

Members of Kim’s family said on Aug. 17 that he had been using the building’s interior staircase to clean interior windows with a three-meter pole when he mistakenly stepped into thin air. Kim was working without safety gear of any kind, including a safety helmet or the kind of lifeline used when working on railings.

His family said that the safety training before he started work was very superficial.

Kim graduated from medical school in the city of Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, and worked as a doctor in a hospital in North Korea. He made the decision to flee North Korea to find treatment for his wife, who had developed liver problems and hypertension. Kim left with his wife and daughter, passing through China and a southeast Asian country before arriving in South Korea in Aug. 2006.

Kim had difficulty finding work, leading him to take on manual labor at Incheon-area construction sites to earn money to cover living costs and his wife’s treatment. In 2010, he went to work full-time for Songdo SE, a social enterprise funded fully by POSCO for management of its R&D Center building in Songdo. While operation of Songdo SE was entrusted to a civic group, sources reported that POSCO was responsible for its practical management, with a former member of the company’s financial team serving as executive director. Songdo SE’s duties have included “environmental beautification,” document receipt and mailing, and parking management for the center’s building, although parking management was outsourced by POSCO in April as a cost-cutting measure.

Kim originally worked in an administrative position for the parking management team before the outsourcing, after which he was transferred to environmental beautification, where his duties involved cleaning the building, sources said. While he had earned 1.7-1.8 million won (US$1,540-1,630) before taxes when working for the parking management team, his monthly pay fell to 1.4 million won (US$1,270) after his transfer. Kim also began working on construction sites on his days off after the salary failed to cover living costs and his wife‘s hospital expenses, but was between 20 million and 30 million won (US$18,100-27,100) in debt at the time of his death.

A journal pad kept by Kim provides a record of the pride and sense of importance he felt for his workplace, his longing for his parents back in North Korea, and his affection for his daughter.

His family said they had been planning to hold Kim’s funeral on the morning of Aug. 15, but when the executive director came to see him in the hospital, he was evasive and said the company bore only ‘moral responsibility,’ while the team leader spoke coarsely to the family and treated them with disdain.

The family said they are postponing the funeral until there is an apology from the company and measures to prevent something like this from happening again.

By Kim Young-hwan, Incheon correspondent

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

 

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