- Title: USA: North Korean refugee youth speaks about her 'Black Market Generation'
- Date: 14th June 2014
- Summary: MALIBU, CALIFORNIA, USA (JUNE 13, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND STRATEGY FOR LIBERTY IN NORTH KOREA (LINK), SOKEEL PARK, SAYING: "North Korea, their so-called Black Market generation, is actually one of the most significant social changes that we see in North Korea, basically these are people born in the 1980s and 1990s who have grown up i
- Embargoed: 29th June 2014 13:00
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- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economy
- Reuters ID: LVAD0TNGYK2TUNKAE34CEQBWN93Y
- Story Text: Liberty for North Korea (LiNK) provided North Korean refugees the opportunity to speak with students and the general public at their 4-day summit held on the Pepperdine campus in California Friday (June 13).
LiNK is an international non-governmental organization which works with North Korean refugees to bring them through China and southeast Asia for resettlement in a 3000 mile "modern day Underground Railroad" for refugee rescues.
"I think that describing North Korean refugee escape routes as a kind of modern Underground Railroad is a way to connect this issue to something a lot of American students have studied and understand in order to understand the kind of risks that these people are going through. And also the length of journey it's even longer in the case of North Korean refugees because they are going through 3000 miles of terrain through China and southeast Asia to freedom. And at any point, especially in China they could be caught and sent back to North Korea where they would face really severe punishments," Director of Research and Strategy for LiNK, Sokeel Park said.
Communist North Korea is one of the world's most reclusive and repressive nations, accused of starving and torturing thousands of people in a network of prison camps while taking extraordinary steps to prevent its citizens from fleeing to South Korea or other nations.
Fewer North Koreans are fleeing to South Korea, possibly due to tighter border control and cases of asylum seekers being returned home by China.
Since the leadership of Kim Jon Un, the strategic priority to clamp down on defections has taken place to cut down on the possible longterm threat to control the nation.
20-year-old Yeonmi Park left North Korea in 2007, traversing a frozen river with her mother and eventually settling into South Korea where she is currently a 3rd year university student.
Park flew to California for just 24 hours to speak at the Summit about her personal experiences as a refugee and on the current economic climate affecting change inside her former home nation.
"Before my generation, like my parents, they thought that the regime was everything for them because it could feed them and give everything to them. But like when I was born I had to survive by myself and we had to trade and go to market and trading and selling and bargaining so that means we don't need a regime anymore they are just only the obstacle for us for the private wealth," Yeonmi told Reuters.
Encouraged by her parents at an early age to learn numbers Park is a member of the so-called "Black Market Generation" or "North Korean Millenials" born in the 1980s and 90s in an era of capitalism following the collapse of the state distribution system.
Her generation has learned profit and private income in daily life for survival.
"Everyday I went to Jangmadang and I even had some business like very like small business when I was 12. I had like a vacation and I wanted to make money by myself so I just bribed the orchard guard with some rice balls and I brought some fruit from the orchard and I sold it in Jangmadang so that means I knew how to make money and how to make a profit," Yeonmi said.
Previously North Korea was an absolute police state creating distrust in communities for fear of being ratted on to the police but as a community of bargaining and trading becomes integrated into daily life so has an opportunity to create trust and communication.
"And again so you're networking with people and co-operating and having this shared disobedience and disobedience and non-compliance we find is increasingly becoming a shared thing, normalized and networked among the people," LiNK Director, Sokeel Park said.
Previously the North Korean government exercised strict control as a demonetized economy but as a quasi fledgling capitalist country the result has been economic change and new profit incentive motivated youth whom have a different relationship with the regime than their parents.
"North Korean society right now is all about private business and making money. That's the way to get ahead and that is in distinct contrast with the way that the North Korean government would like to control their society. So in the long term this is not something that the government can get a hold of or get a grip of without adapting their system so it seems to lead to a long-term transformation of the country in one way or another," Park told Reuters.
The Summit continues until June 15 on the Pepperdine campus in Malibu, California. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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