Measures for assisting female North Korean defectors with recovery of their psychological stability
Soo-yeon Lee
Won-hong Kim
Young-taek Kim
In-soon Kim
In this study, we propose ways to assist female North Korean defectors’ with recovery of their psychological stability beyond the initial support applied to all North Korean defectors entering South Korea, which would accommodate their situation and physical and psychological characteristics resulted from the unusual experiences of escaping from North Korean, entering into and settling down in South Korea as a woman. The state agencies and non-government organizations run programs to assist North Korean defectors psychologically with the objective of recovering their psychological stability and have accomplished it to a certain degree. However, their programs fall short of tailoring to the psychological situation of female defectors who have experienced acrimonious displacing processes and facing a new set of problems in this new land. For measures tailored to female North Korean defectors’ psychological recovery and wellbeing, we propose a focused psychological counseling program, a psychological assistance as part of employment support package, a psychological therapy through art and culture hobby classes, and development of manuals of parenting education, husband education and (South Korean) mentor education. The focused psychological counseling program aims at resolving the female North Korean defectors psychological anxieties and facilitating their social adaptation through individual counseling tailored to their individual temperament and situation. The psychological assistance added to employment support package is realized as lectures or individual counseling as part of career development program. The psychological therapy can also be given through art and culture activities offered in art and culture hobby clubs. Finally, the education manuals need to be written to facilitate the adaptation of their own or their partner to the roles expected to perform in the South Korean society.
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