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| At Daejin Girls' High School / Courtesy of Casey Lartigue Jr. |
By Casey Lartigue Jr.
After I gave a speech last Friday at an international school in Seoul, I was thrilled to answer a South Korean middle school student who had stunned me by asking an informative question that I had never heard or been asked.
I have heard so many of the same questions at events where I have spoken, moderated or attended that I started compiling a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) a few years ago.
About 20 years ago during my first sojourn to South Korea, when I first heard about North Koreans escaping to South Korea, the level of questioning by South Koreans I encountered was low.
South Koreans would question why "selfish" refugees had "betrayed" their families by escaping, suspected they were criminals running away, and accused them of being spies and double agents. I had not knowingly met any North Korean refugees then, so it was a hypothetical conversation for me, too.
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| At Chadwick School. / Courtesy of Casey Lartigue Jr. |
Fast forward, with anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 North Korean refugees escaping to South Korea annually since 2002, and I had returned to South Korea and become active with refugees in 2012.
The level of questioning had clearly gone up. There were still occasional questions for refugees such as, "Did you ever eat human flesh?" "If you were starving, why didn't you order pizza?" And "What do you miss most about North Korea?"
I even had some South Koreans openly question if I was a CIA agent. It seemed that I was still trapped in a "man on the street" YouTube reaction video, with the man (woman and child) on the street usually proving they did not know much.
Since then, the overall level of questioning has gone up yet again. I have heard several factors cited, such as: More South Koreans have now met, worked with or know someone who knows a North Korean refugee. Refugee-focused TV shows have demonstrated to South Koreans that refugees are just "normal" people (as if that needed to be demonstrated). And supposedly media coverage and movies are more balanced and less sensationalist when it comes to presenting North Korean refugees.
The level of questioning has gone up enough that a few years ago, when I spoke at an international school, an elementary school student interrupted me during my speech to challenge something in my PowerPoint presentation. My first thought was to tell him, "Kid, I've got shoes older than you are," but instead I patiently explained to him why he was wrong.
Casey Lartigue Jr. is an international director of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center.
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