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Defectors train to aid others from North Korea

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When North Korean defector Choi Hui-suk arrived in Seoul in 2002, she was miserably lonely and could not escape the feeling of being an outsider.

Sure, these South Koreans looked like her and even spoke her language, but she might as well have landed on the moon.

She had little feel for the culture. She had never used a cellphone or even a TV remote control, and she was so suspicious of strangers that she refused at first to give anyone her real name.

Choi had reason to be cautious: At her first job at an electronics factory here, a South Korean colleague stole $10,000 from her and disappeared.

But the sociable 46-year-old survived and now feels at home in this new land. And she has received training to help others feel the same way -- as a life counselor for North Korean defectors.

“Only North Koreans know what North Koreans experience or feel here,” Choi said.

In December, 22 North Koreans, including Choi, graduated from a nine-month course given by a Seoul civic group to become the first private professional counselors for North Korean defectors.

“There is no honest feeling . . . when [North Koreans] talk to South Koreans,” said Kim Byung-wook, a North Korean defector who is a researcher at the Organization of One Korea.

North Koreans can feel truly comfortable, he said, only when they speak to people from their own troubled homeland.

So far, only two of the private counseling graduates have found work. There are only a few counseling positions for North Korean defectors -- in some large hospitals and at a call center, Kim said, and most of the staff members in these offices are highly educated South Koreans in tight-knit groups.

But Choi is confident that opportunities are out there because more defectors are arriving in South Korea every day.

Over the last few decades, an estimated 15,000 North Koreans have fled the world’s most repressive regime. Most choose to settle in South Korea, where they enjoy new freedom.

But such freedom has its risks.

Many newcomers fall prey to petty crime and scams. Some young women are lured into prostitution. Half of the defectors in South Korea are unemployed, a 2008 government report says.

“Everything is hard,” said Youm Yoo-sik, a sociology professor at Yonsei University. “Basically, the social system is totally different between South Korea’s capitalism and North Korea’s communism.

“They do not understand why people have to work every day, even when they are sick.”

New arrivals are housed in a resettlement center near Seoul. “But after a month, they are out all by themselves and have to do everything on their own,” Youm said. “It is more difficult than a country man moving to the city.”

North Korean children enter an education system that is often so cutthroat that mothers have been known to bribe teachers for better grades -- a far cry from the relatively undeveloped education system in the North.

“There are very unfortunate cases,” Youm said. “Some commit suicide. Some people just wander around alone.”

The newly minted North Korean counselors say fellow defectors need a cultural crash course to change their way of thinking before entering the competitive job market here.

In interviews, several counselors talked of their hard times after arriving in South Korea. They believe their experience qualifies them to show others the proper way to adapt.

“Because of my wounded ego from cold eyes, I refused to go shopping at a nearby supermarket,” said Lee Ok-sil, a counselor who suffered insomnia during her early days of adjustment. “Now, I am proud to counsel.”

Yet despite their insights, many of the counselors continue to struggle to find work. Potential employers note defectors’ lack of university degrees in a nation where diplomas are demanded for even mediocre jobs.

Youm says the situation is changing. The South Korean government is building regional aid facilities and training about 100 counselors to staff the centers.

“The important thing to know is that the trauma gets severe two or three years after they arrive,” Youm said of the defectors. “The trauma was suppressed during their escape and the early days here. But when they are scrambling to adjust, which many fail to do, the trauma unravels.”

Choi knows what Youm is talking about. After being laid off from her first job, the former North Korean fashion designer bounced between work as a temporary construction worker and waitress.

Now she works at a matchmaking company while she seeks a job as a counselor.

Choi is confident that, as more defectors arrive, her services will be in demand. “If Korea is reunited, more people from my homeland would desperately want me,” she said, “because there are no such jobs as a counselor in North Korea.”

Ju-min Park is a researcher in The Times’ Seoul Bureau.

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