[Editorial] Right path for defectors

It would be just nonsense to risk one’s life to arrive at a place where he or she is destined to become a criminal or fall victim to crimes. Many North Korean defectors here, however, find themselves trapped in such an unfortunate destiny.

In recent months, the local news media have run a number of reports on crimes involving defectors from the North. Police said this week two defectors had been arrested for smuggling methamphetamine from China and selling the drug to dozens of South Koreans. In July, 27 defectors were caught for being involved in insurance fraud. Some defectors were recently arrested on charges of forging banknotes. It has become known that North Korean defectors are connected to voice phishing rings based in China.

There is also an increasing number of cases in which defectors fall prey to fraud and other crimes, often committed by those who escaped the North together with them. Police recently arrested a man who had swindled some 5 billion won ($4.5 million) out of more than 150 defectors by promising them large profits from a false development project in a southern Chinese city. The 43-year-old man, himself a defector, used his background to attract investors and give assurances to them.

Figures from local research institutes show the crime rate of defectors settling here is more than double that of the general population. The possibility of North Korean defectors being victimized by crimes is also five times as high as other South Korean citizens.

It is said that defectors are more easily enticed into committing crimes or cajoled into fraudulent schemes as most of them end up at the bottom of the social ladder. A survey on 8,299 defectors, conducted by the North Korean Refugees Foundation early this year, found that more than 30 percent earn less than 1 million won a month. Their jobless rate exceeded 12 percent, over 3.3 times the figure for the entire population. Difficulties with adapting to the competitive life in the capitalist South with limited skills and knowledge may be further pushing many defectors to overstep the legal boundaries. Or it can be said that some defectors just have more criminal propensity.

Whatever the reasons for their deviant behavior, more serious consideration should now be given to how to keep the defectors, whose number is estimated to surpass 25,000 by the end of the year, on the right track toward successful resettlement here. Guiding them to a secure and stable life in the South will be a touchstone of Seoul’s capability to smoothly integrate the two disparate societies in the event of national unification. This does not necessarily mean providing defectors with everything they need for an indefinite period, which would be simply impracticable.

Under a law enacted in 1997, the central and local administrations have implemented basic support programs for North Koreans settling here. What is further needed is to establish a more comprehensive and effective system to help them land a more stable job and design a long-term life plan, while encouraging them to be more responsible for getting through difficulties inevitably accompanying any resettlement process. It would also be helpful to lead successful settlers to extend helping hands to other defectors in a more active and systemic fashion.

The Seoul government has been somewhat embarrassed at a recent string of cases in which some defectors returning to the North expressed “disillusionment” with their life in the South, though Pyongyang’s propaganda machine seemed to have manipulated them. Persistent efforts toward defectors’ successful resettlement here would make North Korean propagandists give up such put-on shows just like they suspended sending leaflets trumpeting the superiority of their regime to the South long ago.