North Korean fashion, drums and jubilation: Here’s how South Koreans celebrated the first-ever Defectors’ Day

Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

In the shadow of what looks like Seoul’s colossal chrome space station, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, hundreds of defectors from North Korea gathered Sunday for lively celebrations marking the first National Day of North Korean Defectors.

The inaugural event, declared by the government to be held every July 14, honors about 34,000 North Koreans who escaped Pyongyang’s authoritarian grip to resettle in the South – leaving behind a legacy of fear, deep family ties and days spent under a repressive regime often seen as frozen in time.

The joy of freedom marked Sunday’s celebration, the thunderous beat of massive drums proclaiming fiery independence from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Echoes of famous North Korean songs celebrating friendship spread through nearby neighborhoods, as families filled stalls serving North and South Korean treats such as fried confectionery. yakgwaand a fruit punch, or hwachae.

The vibrant celebrations taking place in the heart of South Korea are particularly significant given the challenges defectors often face once they arrive. Many struggle to integrate, and some even risk their lives to return to their hermit country. Among the challenges they face are financial hardship, discrimination, and the deep stigma defectors face among South Koreans.

Activists and authorities hope that this new annual celebration will help change this situation.

“This is something we all need to celebrate,” said Park Daehyeon, a defector who fled North Korea in 2006 and has since founded the nonprofit organization Woorion to help other defectors resettle in the South.

Defectors flee the North and come to the South “to be very useful to society, and also to contribute to South Korean society, and also to support their friends and family who remain in North Korea,” he added.

“So it’s a date where we all need to accept and support each other, recognise each other and appreciate the diversity and the different experiences that we have.”

Since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, North and South Korea have been separated by a nearly impenetrable border, preventing anyone from crossing to the other side.

Over the next few decades, South Korea modernized, becoming one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. At the same time, North Korea became increasingly isolated, with the vast majority of its citizens subject to widespread poverty and limited basic freedoms.

Over the years, thousands of defectors have fled, often using middlemen who arrange their transportation and routes across strict borders, traveling through China and other parts of Asia before arriving in Seoul and other final destinations.

It’s a perilous journey. Many North Korean women are trafficked and sexually exploited in China, where the gender imbalance has created a black market for brides. And the victims have few options: China considers North Korean refugees to be economic migrants and forcibly expels them back to their home countries, where, as suspected defectors, they face imprisonment, torture or worse, activists say.

Even those who manage to reach South Korea safely struggle to find jobs and earn a living, even with vocational training and financial support from the government. According to government figures, about 6.1 percent of defectors were unemployed in 2022, more than double the national rate.

There is also the culture shock – and sometimes the hostility of South Koreans.

In online news articles, “you can find people saying, ‘Hey, you need to go back to where you came from,'” said Park, Woorion’s founder.

“I wish society would be more open to new defectors. There are maybe thousands of North Korean defectors who want to come to South Korea and have a prosperous life. If society doesn’t welcome them… they’re kind of lost.”

At Sunday’s celebration, Kwon Ji-hwan, who fled North Korea in 2015, drew free pictures for visitors and told CNN he was “very grateful” for the event.

“(If I were still in North Korea) I think I would have had a hard life working as a laborer, maybe on a construction site,” he said. “But since I came to South Korea, I can live freely while drawing what I like, which is what makes me happiest.”

However, he said he wanted new arrivals to be able to receive a more comprehensive education so they could become self-reliant rather than reliant on government benefits.

On Sunday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol invited a group of defectors to the Blue House, the former presidential residence, where he offered encouragement and support to the community.

“We express our respect and applause to the 34,000 North Korean defectors who are opening new lives (in South Korea) every day,” he said. “You are all living witnesses of the noble journey toward freedom.”

Yoon promised to increase resettlement funds for defectors and to incentivize government agencies and state-owned enterprises to hire more defectors by offering tax breaks.

Other defectors at the festival on Sunday had mixed reactions: some appreciated the gesture, others remembered their homes across the heavily militarized border, and still others were unsure whether the event would serve to unite people.

One defector, whose name CNN is withholding for privacy and security reasons, ate rice cakes at a stall at the Seoul festival. “They tasted just like the ones I ate in my hometown,” she said. “It’s been 10 years since I came to South Korea, but I still miss the taste of my hometown and have a hard time getting used to South Korean food.”

She worries that the annual Defectors’ Day will create a “division between us and South Koreans and make us feel like we are not accepted as Koreans.” But she adds that she understands the government’s intentions and hopes it will become “an opportunity for harmony and mutual understanding.”

Han Bong-hee, a participant, told CNN she was unsure whether she would still be alive if she had stayed in North Korea. She has been practicing traditional medicine since moving to the South 24 years ago.

“I am very satisfied with my life now because I came to South Korea, found a job and am living happily while enjoying freedom,” she said.

Another North Korean defector who left North Korea in 2016 expressed gratitude for the celebration. “I didn’t know that a defector’s day like this would happen, but now that it’s been established, I feel like I have to work harder,” she said. “I want to live and work harder knowing that there are people in the government who are trying to help us.”

There are many success stories of defectors who have become entrepreneurs, academics and professionals, said Park, Woorion’s CEO. He cited himself as an example, explaining that he had struggled when he was younger, but “now I can talk to foreigners, I experience different cultures and I travel all over the world.”

“This is something that all of us North Korean defectors want, and 25 million North Koreans want,” he added. “This is the freedom that we have, and it should be given to everyone.”