[Joongang Daily] Chief Director of NKDB's Opinion Piece on North Korean Defectors

23 Nov 2022

NKDB's founder and chief director, Yeosang Yoon has worked on NK defector issues for over 25 years. His recent opinion piece in 중앙일보 (joongangilbo)/ The Korea JoongAng Daily speaks about how we as a society have failed the NK defectors coming to South Korea.

"The tragedies keep coming [...]

When careers faced obstacles due to their North Korean accents and livelihoods were threatened — and when the period of economic hardship grew longer — they may think about relocating to the United States or Europe. Or they may make extreme choices of giving up hope altogether. Suicides and tragic deaths — even a death from starvation — are continually reported. They are not dying because they have nothing to eat but because they lost hope.

It is rare in the South that someone dies of starvation because of a lack of food. They risked their lives and left their families to live in the South, but their pride was destroyed by the misery of here and they want to hide it. A body that lost hope was found years later as a skeleton, meaning that even the social network, essential for human life, had been severed."

You can read the full article on The Joongang Ilbo website by clicking HERE.

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