North Korean Refugees in South Korea: Change and Challenge in Settlement Support Policy

The aim of this article is to examine the structural conditions that affect the problem of North Korean refugees in South Korea. It provides a historical review of the changing perception and policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea, and how these changes and broader inter-Korean relations have affected the identities of North Korean refugees and the way of they have been dealt with. Understanding the evolution of South Korea's policy toward North Korea and North Korean refugees is important because the policy is the output of the perceptions of political elites of the North Korean regime itself and North Koreans refugees in South Korea, and it involves decisions regarding who they are, why and to what extent should the state offer protection to them, and how to implement such policies. These political conditions constructed by the state and system of states directly and indirectly cause many of the difficulties, confusions, and problems facing North Korean refugees. In this sense, this paper argues that the causes, consequences, and responses to North Korean refugees are a part of much broader political, as well as humanitarian, issues. The paper focuses primarily on these factors affecting South Korea's policy toward North Korean refugees and resultant changes in the status and treatment of those refugees in the Republic of Korea, or South Korea. This paper then explores the challenges that North Korean refugees face in the process of adjusting to South Korean society.