I was going to write a sad post about how North Koreans have a really hard time integrating into South Korea, but I’ll skip that for a fun story instead.

For those who don’t know, South Korea has mandatory conscription. Soldiers practice all sorts of drills, including some in civilian areas (especially close to the Northern border). A friend of mine (Let’s call him Lee) ended up in a placement where they specialize in training other squadrons on North Korean tactics.

Lee had to learn everything from North Korean culture and politics, dialect (including vocabulary tests), military drills, and anything else that would effectively let you drop him into the North Korean army without much problem. It might have been overkill, since all he really did was act in a pseudo-North Korean squad to help train South Korean teams, but to say the least it’s fun to go drinking with Lee.

Lee’s squadron had access to North Korean weapons and replica armor, so when they did drills that’s the attire they wore instead of the traditional South Korean uniform. This went about as well as you might expect. Civilians spotted what they believed to be North Korean troops marching down from the mountains, and immediately notified every emergency service in the province. While higher-ups in the military knew their route, that feedback was far from instantaneous going back to the civilians on the ground. Good luck trying to convince people you’re a squad of South Koreans play-pretending as North Korean military when you’re literally 15km from the Northern border and marching south.

Alright now that I wrote my story about Lee (in another comment), I’ll add some info to this.

There’s an altar with flowers, alongside photos of 42-year-old North Korean defector Han Seong-ok and her 6-year-old son, Kim Dong-jin.

In late July, the management staff for the apartment building where Han lived went looking for her, to see about months of unpaid utility bills. Smelling a foul odor from her apartment, they broke in and found both mother and son on the floor. They had been dead for two months. The bodies were so decomposed, authorities say they couldn’t determine the cause of death.

There was no food in the apartment except a bag of chili pepper flakes. Han’s bank account was empty. Police found no evidence of foul play, so many people assume Han and her child starved to death.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/17/761156048/in-south-korea-anguish-over-deaths-of-north-korean-defectors-who-may-have-starve

South Korea is extremely competitive. On a regular basis, educated people with good work ethic end up with no savings (and usually only debt) by 50+ years of age. If you’re not specialized in a degree, don’t work for the government, or don’t have land, you’re in the rat races until you die. Old folks pick up recyclable materials off the street for like 10c a piece (at least it keeps the city clean).

Now imagine you defect from North Korea at 35 years old. Mind you, these countries are at war, and an unfortunately large number of South Koreans hate the North Korean people to the point that they don’t even like the defectors. So you defect to South Korea, and what’s your first reaction? Well in one interview, a defector said they were surprised they “had to work for a living”. Imagine the culture shock. These people will never own land. They will never have good jobs. They are actually screwed.

Thankfully, defectors do get a small monthly paycheck from the government, and that paycheck has increased since the incident quoted above. But it’s not like their life is going to be good.

As an end note, it is also frustratingly difficult to join groups to help these people.

EDIT: Important corrections

One thing I forgot to mention is North Korean defectors go through a couple-month integration session where they learn things like how to use a computer, online banking, etc. I’ve just asked my friend for more details, and found during this time the South Korean gov’t helps North Koreans land their first jobs, enter University (with a lower bar), or take general classes for free. This is also why a lot of South Koreans (who are already struggling) dislike North Korean defectors, since the North Koreans are getting a “leg-up” on the South Korean’s dime, for free.

conveniently this is ignored by the US, the same country that tries to paint the dprk as a totalitarian state. hmmm