China has the General Association of Korean Residents in China. Unlike members of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, better known as Chosensoren, their Chinese counterparts formally keep North Korean nationality. North Koreans living in three northeastern Chinese provinces - Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang - who hold North Korean nationality are estimated to number about 7,000.
According to statistics released by the National Intelligence Service in 1999, 1.92 million Koreans are estimated to reside in China. Faced with the delicate North Korea-China relations in recent years, some ethnic Koreans in China, suspected of being North Korean spies, are subject to surveillance by Chinese security authorities. "Until 1993 Korean residents in China led a normal life assimilated in Chinese society, without suffering any major disadvantage on account of their being ethnic Koreans," said a Korean-Chinese person who lived in China for 28 years before coming to the South a few years ago.
Korean residents in China affiliated with the General Association possess residential certificates issued by the Chinese authorities and overseas citizens' certificates issued by Pyongyang. Controlled by the North Korean Consulate General in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, they take monthly lessons on Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, like their brethren in the North. The study meetings, where "Study Lectures" is used as a textbook, are not observed as strictly as in the North. "Korean residents in China associated with the North observe North Korean national holidays and ceremonies," recalls a former Korean-Chinese who used to live in Yanji, Jilin province, before coming to the South. "If they hoisted national flags, one could tell they were observing some kind of public events in the North. Otherwise, they displayed no distinctions from other residents."
These residents have men in charge at the level of province or city, and hold a big annual ceremony at Yuwen Middle School in Jilin province, which Kim Il Sung is said to have attended in his childhood. At the ceremony they discuss how to raise "loyalty contributions" and distribute North Korean publications adoring the Kims senior and junior in addition to promoting friendship among themselves. "Taking advantage of my having married an ethnic Korean lady, holding Chinese nationality, I could attend meetings of the General Association," reminisced another North Korean who fled to China in the 1960s and lived there without obtaining Chinese nationality. Korean residents in China associated with the North are said to shun marrying among themselves, because their offspring automatically get North Korea nationality and have to live the life of a minority among the minorities, subject to disadvantages in social advancment and other aspects.
According to Chang Chun-shik, alias, a resident of Dandong, Jilin Province, those residents cooperate with North Korean authorities even nowadays by convening study meetings regularly. The biggest burden on them is loyalty money demanded by Pyongyang. North Korea invites their leaders to tour historic and scenic spots in the North and gives them gifts every year. The cost of their "visits to the fatherland," however, is only a small fraction of donations they collect for Pyongyang.
These residents in China are also exposed to recalls to the North when they have made political remarks critical of Pyongyang, or when they have been discovered to have visited the South without permission, or committed major offenses in China.
Ethnic North Koreans were subject to severe persecution during the 1966-76 Culture Revolution in China. However, with the way now paved open for them to change their nationality thanks to China's reform and opening policies, many of them try to obtain Chinese nationality, resulting in a decline in the membership of the General Association of Korean Residents in China.
The membership is divided roughly into three groups: those who went to the North in support of the 1950-53 Korean War and then returned to China; those who took part in the North's postwar rehabilitation, or who went to the North escaping from persecutions during the Culture Revolution and then returned to China; and those who have fled to and settled down in China keeping North Korean nationality. Korean residents in China holding North Korean nationality are not eligible for the benefits Seoul accords North Korean escapees even if they come to the South.
(Kim Mi-young, miyoung@chosun.com)
