Hello everyone, my name is Eunhee Park,
and I escaped from North Korea in 2012 for freedom.
Today I will talk about the stereotypes people have
about North Koreans that have bothered me.
First, please introduce yourself.
I am Kamku, and I work for the Youtube channel, DMZ Lab.
I'll be helping Eunhee produce her videos from now on.
Don't we seem very friendly, very compatible?
urm ill try lol
I have a question
You have a lot of North Korean friends.
But in the beginning, what kind of opinions did you have about them?
I also ask some of my South Korean friends about their thoughts regarding the defectors
but...
they just don't have any opinion at all.
I think it kind of depends on the person's age,
but young people especially don't share any concern for the defectors.
I think they don't really care about their existence.
They don't understand that their existence in the South is a tangible reality.
I'm not completely sure if they don't have an opinion at all.
I think young people just don't have the time
to shift their attention towards North Korean defectors
as they have so much in their minds- employment, school grades, etc
I also agree.
I once worked in a company with some relatively older people.
They knew that I came from the North.
But when I was eating something good.
they had a tendency to constantly to ask
if it was the first time I ate the particular food.
It had a patronizing nuance to it.
It was like they were asking: you've never had such a thing in the North, right?
They couldn't directly make such offensive statements so they expressed such hostility implicitly.
And so when I kept on hearing such comments
I was really irritated.
It seems like they're looking down on you.
It's okay if they have a completely genuine intention to the question
Like if their asking me if I've had a certain dish because they want to offer it to me.
But because it was repetitively said
it really bothered me.
I've lived in the South and had quite some working experience,
so I did get to eat many dishes.
Still, its frustrating how people judge me based on my past
and cannot see me for who I am today.
When I'm eating things like Korean rice cake, I get curious if it also exists in the North.
Is that offensive as well?
No pure curiosity is fine. I think it really is the derogatory nuance that bothers me.
You can express things in Korean in so many nuances.
Moreover, I'm a woman from the North.
There's an expectation for North Korean woman to be innocent and subservient.
Such stereotypes were reinforced by many Korean TV programs.
People frequently associate North Korean woman to the traditional matriarchal roles.
That made me really uncomfortable.
I'm really not that type of person.
You're not that type of person at all.
Still, people try to view me with a traditional motherly lens.
So people start to question my actions.
Think about it, how can people be "innocent" when they've crossed the border and faced so many dangers?
If they were submissive people, they would've stayed in the North.
People illogically assume that North Korean women are submissive and innocent.
I actually heard something that is quite the opposite
North Korean women are...relatively more fierce?
What do you think about this opinion?
I kinda agree with that lol
Wait that is true?
It really is true.
I heard that North Korean women financially support their family.
Yeah, North Korean women do every job needed.
They support the family financially and emotionally.
They need to support their husbands,
support their children... and so they have no choice but to be strong.
They can't survive if they aren't strong.
But I have a question.
You've met a lot of North Korean women.
What do you think of them?
Are they more innocent or fierce?
I think they don't fit in the submissive category, for sure.
But many North Korean women don't drink or smoke
and so many of them don't smoke or drink in the South either.
I'm not sure if I should be calling that 'innocent'.
But they do seem to seem to be more far from that kind of culture.
But if you ask me if their subservient, I would definitely say no
Instead, they're really direct with their expressions
I've actually seen many worry about how they might come off as a little too direct
I think it's more accurate to say that they're 'independent' than 'fierce'
Independent women :D
Not all North Korean women are like this but
to be a survivor in the North
it's kind of inevitable to become stronger and more independent
Thirdly, another perception that bothered me was the stereotype that North Korean people are ignorant
and are socially inept as they are from a poor country.
I'm not denying that they face difficulties in the South
But they are survivors
which means they have the willpower to overcome any obstacle
It's a little unfortunate that they are deprived of the opportunity to prove their will
as they are judged beforehand
just because of their background
That really made it hard for me
Whenever I went to job interviews
I had a strong North Korean dialect then
*speaking in a North Korean dialect
((This is how I used to speak))
Because of my different dialect
The interviewers asked me where I was from
and I when I told them I was from North Korea
They said that they do not hire North Koreans.
This was a difficulty that many people, including myself, had to overcome.
I'm a survivor of the DPRK regime
but I can't prove myself because of the prevalent stereotypes existent
just because I lived in the North in the past
Such stereotypes really hurt me
But this is not only my problem. It's something all defectors face.
My father, instead, thinks that North Korean women are the strongest and capable of all
and he wants me to marry a North Korean
What about me?
lol
I also think my father's opinion is not as favorable
because that itself is an act of imposing one's expectations over the other
that person may not and does not have to always fulfill the expectations
but those situations can lead to disappointments
Honestly I think that opinion is better
than the stereotype that North Korean women are
ignorant and subservient
Because what I want to share about North Koreans is
not the difficulties that North Koreans face at home
I want to share how they survive such dire circumstances nevertheless.
If people have the perception that
we have potential
and we are strong and independent
I think that people's opinions about the unification of Korea will gradually change in the future
So I like your father's opinion
better than the prevalent opinion that North Koreans are submissive.
I don't think your father's opinion will make me uncomfortable.
We've been rambling and rambling
Oh and this person isn't an undergraduate student. He's in graduate school.
He's younger than me, don't think that he's older
I don't think anyone will think that
nope I think everyone will think that lol
We've talked about the stereotypes regarding North Korean defectors
Thank you for watching this video.
If you have any questions about North Korea, please comment below
See you next time! Bye!
