North Korean defectors on the east coast of Russia remain somewhat isolated as they hide from Russian police and the North's agents, being shunned by ethnic Korean Russians and South Korean diplomatic missions. This reporter was able to meet Kim Myung-chul in a farmhouse near a street market in a rural town, some distance from Vladivostock. A humble looking man, Kim (not his real name) in rugged clothing is looking around the market to get some food. He came to this town as a foreign currency earning worker in 1996 and now has been a drifter sought by the North Korean arrest team for more than three years after refusing to get involved with illegal activities.
After graduating university in Pyongyang, Kim was sent to Russia as a member of a trade group, but left his job after having some trouble with fellow members involved in drug trafficking. He asked for asylum at the Korean Consul, but was arrested after diplomats reported him to the Russian police. After managing to escape Kim once again sought the help of the consul in Vladivostock to get to South Korea. But again he was reported to the police and only just narrowly escaped.
Now Kim going by the name Andrei, is in hiding from the Russian police, which makes him anxious all the time, though fortunately he has met a Russian lady who is helping him.
There is a reason why ethnic Korean Russians as well as the Korean Consul have to turn their back on North Korean refugees. According to one diplomatic source, contact with the North Korean refugees has to be avoided following the murder of Korean diplomat Choi Duk-gun by North Korean spies in 1996, preceded by the murder of a South Korean couple in 1995.
In one case, revealed recently, Mr. L, an ethnic Korean Russian living in Havarovsk, who helped North Korean wood-cutters go to South Korea, is being criticized by the ethnic Korean community because the Russian police now suspect the whole community of helping North Korean refugees. According to the refugees on the Russia east coast and ethnic Koreans, there are up to 500 North Korean refugees, far more than the 100 estimated by the South Korean government.
The backgrounds of the refugees range from illegal migrants, members of wood cutting or trade groups to political asylum seekers. Once they escape and became refugees, they become helpless drifters though some of them are living under the protection of the ethnic community. In Havarovsk, once the land of wood cutting, almost 15,000 North Korean workers were sent back to North Korea when the sawmill was shut down. The Pyongyang Restaurant run by North Koreans is also close to closing down leaving about 100 jobless workers and refugees as targets for the Russian police.
Against the Russian economic backdrop, North Korean workers there have been turned into potential refugees. Kim dong-moo (meaning friend in North Korean), whose visa has expired complains that he only had two meals in four days, because he couldn't find any work. One ethnic Korean Russian said, "there are many North Korean burglars who steel from shops, which is annoying the Russian police."
The border area, downstream of the Tumen river is almost impossible to cross as the river is both deep and wide. One such man who attempted to do so was returned to North Korea, and stunned Russian guards watched their North Korean counterparts execute him on the spot. The commander later said, "we learned after a while that the man had been a famous professor from a well-known university in North Korea seeking asylum."
Rumors amongst defectors said that it was easier to get to South Korea through Russia, but having found them to be untrue, a greater number now head for Central Asia and Mongolia.
(December 13, 1999)
