Suchergebnisse

The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea is increasing rapidly. They are important people to South Korean society not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for their impact on the future Korean unification and the integration of the two different South and North Korean peoples. However, the defectors have experienced many difficulties in their adaptation to South Korean society due to their own characteristics and due to the misunderstandings of the South Korean people. To obtain comprehensive qualitative data about the characteristics and difficulties of North Korean defectors' adaptation to South Korean society, 58 semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with 32 defectors who had entered South Korea from 1990 to 1997. Four categories of adaptation difficulties were encountered, which are related with the defectors' suspiciousness, different ways of thinking, searching for new sets of values, and with the prejudice of the South Korean people. Finally, three areas of suggestions for the more successful adaptation of the defectors to South Korean society were made; a need for more comprehensive perspectives on the defectors' adaptation, suggestions regarding educational programs and suggestions for educating the South Korean people. ; open

Using data from the 1980-1992 National Election Studies, this paper compares the policy & partisan views of three Sets of voters: (1) "loyal" Democrats who voted for their party's presidential candidates; (2) "defecting" Democrats who voted for Ronald Reagan or George Bush; (3) loyal Republicans. During the 1980s, the defectors were commonly labeled "Reagan Democrats," & the conventional wisdom at the time was that Reagan Democrats were disenchanted with the liberal tilt of the "national" Democratic Party, especially on issues related to race & redistribution. The analysis shows that defecting Democrats were indeed strikingly conservative on racial policy questions, & in some cases were statistically indistinguishable from Republicans. At the same time, Reagan Democrats expressed preferences on "safety net" issues like Social Security that put them squarely within the Democratic Party mainstream. In response to open-ended questions asking what they liked or disliked about the two major parties, Reagan Democrats offered generally favorable appraisals of their party. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

A review of studies on the adaptation problems of North Korean defectors in South Korean society and studies of people's adaptation to political and cultural changes in other countries suggests that similar adaptation problems may occur in the process of and after unification. Defectors have various adaptation problems and some of them have psychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The reasons for this were revealed to be the difference in the culture and personality between South and North Korea, which have developed for the last 60 years without any communication with each other, in spite of their common racial and cultural heritage. Economic factors including the lack of skills and knowledge for working at industrialized and competitive society like South Korean society, also aggravate the severity of such adaptation problems. Research on defectors' adaptation problems and on the differences in the culture and mentality between North and South Korea can provide useful information on what kinds of problems may arise during the process of and after unification and what should be done to achieve mutual adaptation and harmonious and peaceful unification. ; open

The number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea has been increasing rapidly since 1994. Two hundred North Korean defectors in South Korea were studied to identify their experiences of traumatic events in North Korea and during defection, and the correlation with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews and assisted defectors in performing a self-report assessment of this survey. The study questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics, the Traumatic Experiences Scale for North Korean Defectors, and the PTSD part of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Korean version. Prevalence rate of PTSD in defectors was 29.5%, with a higher rate for women. In factor analysis, the 25 items of traumatic events experienced in North Korea were divided into three factors: Physical Trauma, Political-Ideological Trauma, and Family-Related Trauma. In addition, the 19 items of traumatic events during defection were grouped into four factors: Physical Trauma, Detection and Capture-Related Trauma, Family-Related Trauma, and Betrayal-Related Trauma. In multifactorial logistic regression analysis, Family-Related Trauma in North Korea had a significant odds ratio. ; restriction