36% of young defectors born outside of N. Korea

More than a third of all children of North Korean defectors here were born in another country.

The Korean Educational Development Institute, a Seoul-based think tank, said in a report released Sunday that children born in China or other countries during their parents’ defection into South Korea require educational approaches different to other young North Korean refugees.

The study found that 36 percent of 1,681 student defectors in primary and secondary school were born outside of North Korea.

Other government data shows that third-country births exceed 50 percent among elementary school students. Of the 1,020 elementary school student defectors, 585 were born outside of the two Koreas as of April.

“Children born in third countries feel no connection to the North besides the fact that it is their parents’ native country,” commented KEDI researcher Kim Yoon-young.

“Classifying children born in a third country as young North Korean defectors could not be further from the truth.”

The researcher calimed that these children face difficulties in South Korean schools because of the language, saying that some of them had experience of school in other countries.

She said that curricula catered to developing basic study habits did not suit them, and should instead focus on language skills.

“One reason children from China or other countries have a difficult time understanding classes here is their lack of Korean language skills,” she said.

Data by the Education Ministry shows that the school dropout rate of student defectors has seen a decline starting with 10.8 percent in 2007, 6.1 percent in 2008, 4.9 percent in 2009 and 4.7 percent in 2010.

However compared to the average dropout rate among Korean students of about 1 percent, the numbers are still high.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)