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.

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

Two studies investigated the explicit & implicit attitudes toward, & identification with, South & North Korea by a sample of South Koreans & North Koreans who voluntarily defected to the South. North Korean defectors showed (a) more positive evaluations of South Korea on explicit self-report measures, but more favorable evaluations of the North on an implicit measure, & (b) on average, North-South neutral identity on an explicit measure, but stronger self-association with the North on an implicit measure. In contrast, South Koreans indicated consistently positive attitudes toward, & identification with, the South on both explicit & implicit measures. Implications of these findings for Korean unification are discussed. 3 Tables, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 45 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with the problems of North Korean defectors currently living in South Korea. In the past, most such defectors came from privileged groups in the North Korean population, and their adjustment to the new environment did not pose a significant problem. However, from the mid-1990s, defectors began to come from the far less privileged groups. They experience serious problems related to jobs, education, crime, and social adjustment. Recent years have seen a dramatic but not always openly stated change in the official South Korean attitude toward defectors: from a policy explicitly aimed at encouraging defection, Seoul has moved to the policy of quietly discouraging it. There are fears that encouraging defection will undermine the policy of peaceful engagement with the North. There is also the perception that refugees are outsiders, not quite adjustable to the conditions of South Korean society and thus a social and budgetary burden.