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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: Interview with North Korean refugees |
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http://freekorea.blogspot.com/2005/05/second-group-refugee-interview-north.html
Some interesting responses but not as in-depth as I hoped. And I suspect their responses were colored by the interviewer's (in my opinion most likely very apparent) biases.
This jumped out at me:
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| Many South Koreans are openly patronizing of the North Koreans in their dealings with them. Asking what it is like to eat leaves and barks or frogs at a first meeting isn't a way to win North Koreans over. Neither is asking if any family members have starved to death or are imprisoned in North Korea (perhaps because of their own defection). North Koreans don't welcome the bringing up of bitter memories by unknown people, yet many South Koreans ask these type of questions as if enquireing about the weather. |
I can't help but wonder.. do they also ask them if they know about South Korea's amazing four (count 'em) seasons? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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Many South Koreans are openly patronizing of the North Koreans in their dealings with them. Asking what it is like to eat leaves and barks or frogs at a first meeting isn't a way to win North Koreans over. Neither is asking if any family members have starved to death or are imprisoned in North Korea (perhaps because of their own defection). North Koreans don't welcome the bringing up of bitter memories by unknown people, yet many South Koreans ask these type of questions as if enquireing about the weather.
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I would imagine that many North Koreans have somewhat conflicted feelings about the homeland. Obviously, the refugees can figure out that things pretty much suck right now, otherwise they wouldn't have fled. But they've also been raised on a steady diet of propaganda portraying NK as a wonderful place, and a lot of that propaganda probably claims that South Korea is responsible for whatever goes wrong in the North.
And nobody really likes it when you meet someone from another country and the first thing out of his mouth is a stream of insulting comments on your homeland, no matter how much those comments may mirror reality.
This might put into a different light the "kid gloves" approach that Uri and its supporters advocate taking with the North, at least as far as public rhetoric goes. Because if even the refugees feel alienated by anti-NK statements, then distributing such statements in the form of(let's say) propaganda leaflets dropped from a helicopter probably won't do much to win over the average Joe Blow North Korean who believes with all his heart that KJI is a living god. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
And nobody really likes it when you meet someone from another country and the first thing out of his mouth is a stream of insulting comments on your homeland, no matter how much those comments may mirror reality.
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Well, they could try using some of that famous tact that Koreans are so admired and respected for... |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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On the other hand wrote:
And nobody really likes it when you meet someone from another country and the first thing out of his mouth is a stream of insulting comments on your homeland, no matter how much those comments may mirror reality.
Well, they could try using some of that famous tact that Koreans are so admired and respected for...
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Ha ha! Yeah, that point crossed my mind too.
Funny, when I tell Koreans I'm from Canada, often the first thing I hear is "Oh Quebec, they speak French there"(I think this must be one of the facts that they memorize in school). But when they meet their "brothers" from up North, it's "oh is your family starving?" |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
| This might put into a different light the "kid gloves" approach that Uri and its supporters advocate taking with the North, at least as far as public rhetoric goes. Because if even the refugees feel alienated by anti-NK statements, then distributing such statements in the form of(let's say) propaganda leaflets dropped from a helicopter probably won't do much to win over the average Joe Blow North Korean who believes with all his heart that KJI is a living god. |
Well, the interviewed refugees seemed to think it was a good idea. Though I still wonder how much they may have been telling OFK what he wanted/expected to hear.
I don't think the pamphlets would be effective if they said bad things about NK; people there see it for what it is. The idea as I see it would be to simply say good things about the free world: pictures of cities with skyscrapers, families with full tables, people able to speak their minds without going to the gulag with their families. North Koreans, I'm certain, are thirsting for news of the outside world.
Taking this road would end things pretty quickly; but whether peacefully, violently, or in the resumption of war is the question. |
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rok_the-boat
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Initial post: - Leaves and bark or frogs?
I have seen all that in a South Korea restraurant ... bugs an' all. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:21 am Post subject: |
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| I don't think the pamphlets would be effective if they said bad things about NK; people there see it for what it is. |
Maybe. But did you see this quote from the article?
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Mrs. C., a journalist from Pyongyang before being sent to a rural area explained that those privileged few with knowledge of the outside world know that the U.S. isn't the great evil it's portrayed as being. Peasants and others do believe the propaganda and do date America intensely.
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(assuming "date" was meant to be "hate")
In order to "see NK for what it is", you have to have some external point of reference, ie North Korea is bad in comparison to other places that are good. But if people believe all the propaganda about the US(and likely the west as a whole), then they might think that NK, bad as it is, is still better than anywhere else on the planet.
"Comrades, thanks to the benevolence of Dear Leader, our famine is coming to an end, whereas the famine that has plagued the United States for the past 200 years continues!!"
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The idea as I see it would be to simply say good things about the free world: pictures of cities with skyscrapers, families with full tables, people able to speak their minds without going to the gulag with their families. North Koreans, I'm certain, are thirsting for news of the outside world.
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Of course, a genuinely indoctrinated person might just assume that photos portraying the good life in the west are all fake, the way we would assume(albeit correctly) that similar photos coming from North Korea are fake.
I read somewhere(probably on Dave's) that there was a bit of a panic among the NK leadership a few years back after footage of a South Korean strike was shown on North Korean TV, with the purpose of demonstrating how badly workers are treated down here. Apparently, some viewers were noticing that the South Korean workers(presumably the most exploited citizens) were carrying pens in their shirt pockets, whereas in the North at the time there was actually a shortage of pens. The danger for the regime, of course, was that these images were shown by the government itself, which claimed them to be accurate representations of life in South Korea. But some of the viewers came away with the wrong message. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:29 am Post subject: |
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I asked a Korean recently why they ask such tactless/ prying personal questions as an introduction.
She replied that its a hangover from the past. Koreans used to be suspicious of foreigners and had to find out what they were doing and why they were here. (presumably to forstall an invasion).
Now its combined with a sort of juvenile materialistic arrogance, celebrated by looking down on people from poorer countries. "Haha, we have cellphones and you still eat bugs for food, haha".
Historically North and south korea were culturally different anyway, even before the DMZ cemented the division. Southerners were traditionally arrogant stuck up traders and businessmen, not to be trusted and money their only value. Northerners were typically tougher, a more rural population of farmers, a soldier caste, more friendly and down to earth. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| There is a certain comfort and solace in knowing that SKoreans don't ask invasive questions of just us waygookins. |
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