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April 6, 2003: North Korean defectors walk to military car in Kangneung,
South Korea. Photo: AFP/Donga Ilbo
SEOUL—Even those lucky defectors who survive famine, violence, and
criminal gangs to escape North Korea suffer from extremely poor mental
and physical health long after resettling in affluent South Korea, a new
survey has shown.
The survey by a research team from Seoul National University comprised
more than 200 participants. It found that many defectors suffer severe
mental health problems, largely as a result of overwhelming anxiety about
loved ones they left behind.
And their physical health, measured across a range of indicators, was
generally worse than that of a typical South Korean hepatitis patient, it
showed.
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Emotional anguish
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“For North Korean defectors, living in South Korea is emotionally and
physically demanding,” Professor Choi Myung-Ae of Seoul National
University’s College of Nursing told RFA’s Korean service.
Choi and his colleagues conducted a study across eight medical
specialties and found that the general physical and mental health status
of more than 200 North Korean defectors residing in South Korea scored an
average of 435 points out of 800 on key indicators. This was well below
the average 509 points for South Korean hepatitis patients or even 491
points for recipients of organ transplants.
More than 80 percent of respondents said they had contracted at least one
disease after leaving North Korea, with an average of two to three
different diseases affecting each participant. Vitamin deficiency and
muscular-skeletal disease from malnutrition were frequently reported,
while gastritis, arthritis, and depression were also common.
The research indicates that 20 percent of the ailments affecting North
Korean defectors are mental in nature.
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“The health status of defectors who left their families in the North is
five times worse than that of defectors who escaped North Korea with
relatives or friends,” said Park Jeong Ran, an expert on defectors at the
Institute for Unification Studies at Seoul National University.
“The research indicates that 20 percent of the ailments affecting North
Korean defectors are mental in nature,” she said.
Medical staff at the Hanawon reception center for defectors have
indicated that around 70 percent of North Koreans in their care exhibited
symptoms of depression or other stress-related syndromes.
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Human trafficking, prejudice
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They cite “worries over the fate of the families left behind” and
“apprehension of an uncertain future in South Korea” as the main causes.
Park called for an integrated health care system for defectors, saying
that the work of charities and nonprofit groups was laudable but
inadequate. She also pointed to social discrimination as a major hurdle
for North Koreans in the South.
The health status of defectors who left their families in the North is
five times worse than that of defectors who escaped North Korea with
relatives or friends.
<p class="attribution">
“South Korean citizens also need to discard their bias and prejudice
toward the defectors and accept them as their equals,” Park said.
The Seoul National University findings support an earlier study from a
Korea University research team, which focused on diseases contracted by
defectors while still in North Korea, or in third countries along their
defection route to South Korea.
Along the tortuous road to defection, many North Korean women and girls
fell victim to human traffickers or lived in extremely adverse
conditions, and consequently were in worse health than men, that study
found.
In April, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs studied the
health of 6,500 North Korean defectors who had arrived in South Korea
between 2000 and 2005. It found a high infection rate for syphilis, at
1.8 percent in 2004 and 2.1 percent in 2005. Of 700 women aged 20 to 49
hosted by the Hanawon reception center, one out of five suffered from
some type of gynecological disorder.
Kim Hye Eun, deputy secretary general of a South Korean-based North
Korean defectors’ association dealing with health and employment
problems, called for a more realistic health care policy to address
defectors’ needs.
“If they are sick, it is not so easy to seek appropriate medical care.
They have to pay for their medication out of pocket,” Kim said. “Many of
them can’t go to a hospital even if they are sick, as they don’t have
health insurance.”
“It takes North Korean defectors a long time to find a decent job in the
South. To make things worse, they cannot afford to look after their own
health, and often their health condition doesn’t allow them to continue
on their jobs, thus creating a vicious circle that encompasses both
health and employment issues,” she said.
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Rampant post-traumatic stress disorder
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She said the health care problem was more urgent than financial
incentives to retrain for employment in the South.
“Ideally, North Korean defectors in the South should receive lifelong
free health insurance, or at the very least be granted an extension of
their current two-year free health insurance coverage,” Kim said.
A 2001 study of post-traumatic stress disorder among defectors found that
they reported certain traumatic events in North Korea with a high
frequency.
Most commonly reported were: “witnessing public executions,” followed by
“hearing news of the death of a family member or relative due to
starvation,” “witnessing a beating,” “witnessing a punishment for
political misconduct,” and “death of a family member or relative due to
illness.”
The study, published in the international medical journal
The Lancet
, found symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 29.5 percent
of North Koreans in South Korea, compared with a rate of 56 percent found
among North Koreans in China in a separate study.
Women are also thought to have experienced far higher rates of rape and
sexual assault, often through being trafficked by criminal gangs, than
were reported in the
Lancet
study, however.
Original reporting in Korean by Youngyoon Choi and Naeri Kim. RFA Korean
service director: Jaehoon Ahn. Translated from Korean by Grigore
Scarlatoiu. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited
by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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&#169;
2007 Radio Free Asia
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<h4>
Original reporting in Korean
</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.rfa.org/korean/" title="Korean service home page">
Korean service home page
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<h4>
Related RFA news in English
</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="/english/news/politics/korea_US-20070504.html">
U.S. Won't 'Walk Away' from North Korea Talks: Envoy
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<a href="/english/korea/nkorea_teens-20070321.html">
North Korean Teen Defectors Face Huge Challenges
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<a href="/english/features/women/korea_nkdoctor-20070308.html">
North Korean Doctor Tells of Her Escape
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<a href="/english/korea/korea_trafficking-20070216.html">
Thousands of North Korean Women Sold as Slaves in China
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<a href="/english/news/politics/korea_pow-20070125.html">
Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten, South Korean POWs Tell Their Story
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On the Web
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<ul>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.journalismfellowships.org/stories/southkorea/southkorea_
defectors.htm" title="In English">
Johns Hopkins University: North Korean Migrants Suffer Trauma
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://64.233.179.104/scholar?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=cache:eel8hXRd2qw
J:www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/NKorea_Health.pdf.pdf+related:eel8h
XRd2qwJ:scholar.google.com/" title="In English">
The Lancet on North Korean migrants
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VHT42MFG0W9&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2001&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&v
iew=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=88a3e6377f
174c591d4290d3376e7aee" title="In English">
Journal article: Trauma experience of North Korean refugees in China
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgibin/abstract/110472306/ABSTRACT" title="In English">
Journal of Traumatic Stress: North Korean refugees
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMe
d&list_uids=17316718&dopt=Citation" title="In English">
Social experience and global health of North Korean asylum-seekers
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a
href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMe
d&list_uids=615937&dopt=Abstract" title="In English">
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health on refugees
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.country-studies.com/north-korea/public-health.html"
title="In English">
North Korean country study: public health
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.who.int/countries/prk/en/" title="In English">
WHO on North Korea
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea" title="Wikipedia - About
Korea ">
Wikipedia - About Korea
</a>
</li>
</ul>
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<h4>
Blog: RFA Unplugged
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<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://rfaunplugged.wordpress.com" title="">
RFA Unplugged
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</ul>
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