• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2018

This study examined the resilience of North Korean defectors, resilience and the factors influencing resilience, and explored methods of improving their resilience. 129 North Korean defectors, who were trained in B city, participated in the survey from November, 2016 to February, 2017. The resilience, health promoting behavior, and self-esteem were measured. The mean scores were 3.46 for resilience. There were significant positive correlations between resilience and self-esteem. The influence of the independent variables on the on the resilience was examined using regression analysis. Models including the variables explained 11.7%(F=9.460, p<.001) of the variance for the resilience. These findings demonstrate that it is essential for nurses to continuously intervene and help North Korean defectors so as to promote their resilience and self-esteem.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.332-338
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• 2016

This study examined the posttraumatic growth of North Korean defectors, the relation between their characteristics and posttraumatic growth and the factors influencing their posttraumatic growth, and explored methods of improving their mental health status. 145 North Korean defectors, who were trained in B city and G city, participated in the survey from February 1 to March 10, 2016. The posttraumatic growth, resilience, self-esteem, deliberate rumination, and impact of the (traumatic) event were measured using the PTGI (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory), RS (Rumination Scale, Resilience Scale), SES (Self-esteem Scale) and ISR (Impact of Event). The data were analyzed using the t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression. The mean scores were 29.64 for posttraumatic growth. There were significant positive correlations between posttraumatic growth and resilience and between posttraumatic growth and rumination. The influence of the independent variables on the total posttraumatic growth was examined using regression analysis. Models including the variables (resilience, positive self-esteem, and rumination) explained 54.2% of the variance for the posttraumatic growth. These findings demonstrate that it is essential for nurses to continuously intervene and help North Korean defectors so as to promote their posttraumatic growth and resilience. Furthermore, it is also necessary for nurses to find ways to develop ideal interventions in order to activate deliberate rumination.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.317-328
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to understand the experience and adaptation of North Korean defector who acquired Korean nurse license and living as a nurse in depth through qualitative data. The study sampled 7 North Korean defector nurses who can express their experiences well, and applied Colaizzi's phenomenological qualitative research method to draw out 5 theme clusters and 14 sub categories. As the result, subjects had proud of becoming nurse in Korea, acknowledged and accepted differences from Korean, wanted to be recognized as the Korean people, and they expected to becoming true Korean nurse by being integrated into Korean society with their passion and challenge toward a new dream. This study has helped to apprehend essence of experience of North Korean defectors as a nurse after acquiring Korean nurse license, and it is expected that it could provided basic data to realistically approach to seeking measures for the subjects to successfully adjust as Korean nurses.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.221-232
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• 2011

Purpose: The study sought to provide basic information for North Korean defectors (Sae-Tu-Min) by studying the quality of life(QoL) based on their general characteristics and health problems. Methods: The targeted subjects were 1400 North Korean settlers who were receiving settlement service by Korean National Red Cross after finishing their training at Hanawon in 2005. The data was collected from August to October in 2007. The QoL was assessed by Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36. Collected data were analyzed by ANOVA and t-test with SPSS win 15.0 program. Result: The majority of the 466 subjects were female(77.9%). The average age was 36.8 years, 52.8% lived alone, and 64.0% were unemployed. The average QoL score of the group was $62.4{\pm}18.4$, which was markedly lower in terms of social, physical and mental health compared to the scores of immigrants to South Korea from other countries. The score was the highest for physical ability and the lowest for general health. Influential socio-demographic factors to QoL were gender, age, education, religion, annual salary, occupation, and life insurance. Employed in the subject group showed higher level of QoL on eight categories than unemployed. Concerning health problems that detracted from QoL, 18.5% of the subjects were aware they suffered from anemia and 8.8% of them recognized they suffered from attention deficits. Conclusion: The health conditions of the North Korean settlers had improved since they settled in South Korea, but their QoL was lower than other immigrants. Various programs to maintain and promote the health of North Korean settlers would be useful.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.222-223
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• 2020

Recently, as the era of economic cooperation on the Korean Peninsula approaches, the role of the building sector, such as humanitarian reorganization of North Korean housing, is increasing. The purpose of this study is to find out the current location of North Korean housing standards through the North Korean Housing Survey. For the survey, a survey was conducted through 79 North Korean defectors. The main construction methods of North Korean housing are reinforced concrete, steel framed, wooden framed, masonry, and reinforced concrete walled and prefabricated. The residential environment satisfaction items consist of durability, waterproof, heating, ventilation, heat insulation, air tightness, mining, soundproofing, disaster safety, fire safety, and crime prevention. The result is as follows. The housing construction method in North Korea, which lived at that time, consisted of 21 people (30.88%) of reinforced concrete frames, 18 people (26.47%) of wooden frames, 17 people (25%) of masonry walls, 5 people of prefabricated structures (7.35%), and reinforced concrete. Two people (2.94%) were walled. Among these, the wooden frame type had the lowest satisfaction level for each item, and the reinforced concrete had a high level of dissatisfaction in the items of heating, confidentiality, and disaster safety, and the other item had a high level of satisfaction. The masonry wall type has a relatively high satisfaction level in terms of insulation, confidentiality, mining, and disaster safety.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.489-497
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• 2021

This study presents the results of an empirical analysis on whether the experience of contact with North Korea and North Korean settlers affects the perceptions of unification. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the contact experience enhances intimacy with the North Korean settlers or raises a friendly perception of North Korea.The results of this study are as follows. First, the experience of contact with North Korea and North Korean defectors had a positive effect on intimacy with North Korean settlers, friendly perception of North Korea, and perceptions of unification. Second, intimacy toward North Korean settlers and perception of North Korea played a mediating role between contact experience and unification consciousness.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.117-122
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• 2017

North Korean youth is a youth aged 6 to 18 who lives in a South Korean society after having left North Korea. In this study, photo-in-education (PIE) provides North Korean youths with opportunities for cultural and arts education, and to help them adjust themselves to South Korean society. As a result, they, as young people who are exploring a new life in South Korea, have been able to express their own inner world through photos, videos, and writings. Also, young people have developed a bright and clear mind, and enhanced an expressive power and logical power that helps grow healthily and intelligently. Further, it is the aim of this education to help them to have a positive feeling for society and to do their best to become a healthy member of society, who will be able to contribute to society. Through PIE, it was found that North Korean defectors were able to see themselves positively and express their own inner self positively, despite that they are still in the negative and shady side of life.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.160-167
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• 2015

This study is to investigate the relationship between health promoting lifestyles around the psychosocial aspects such as depression, stress and self-esteem of young North Korean defectors. In particular, the purpose is mentally still less of a mature compared to adults, adolescents need greater understanding. For this purpose, North Korean Youth 150 people were surveyed, questionnaires 85 parts were used in the final analysis excluded from the additional 65. To analyze the factors affecting the health of life was performed multiple linear regression. Analysis result, general self, school self, stress had significant influence on health promoting lifestyles. The conclusion of this study is social psychology factors such as stress self-esteem of North Korean Adolescents refugees is addressed health promoting lifestyles and causal relationship, and promote health of adolescents shows wonderful self-esteem. It suggests that the necessary establishment. This effort is called for to reliably establish the North Korean youth to be part of a future South Korean society.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2012

Objective : Psychiatry in North Korea is believed to seem very different from psychiatry in South Korea. However, there is nearly no information regarding psychiatry in North Korea until now. Our study aimed to get information about North Korean psychiatry. Methods : Three North Korean defectors in South Korea, whose clinical experience as medical doctors in North Korea was over 10 years, were recruited. They underwent the semi-structured interview, content of which included the clinical experience with psychiatric patients, the details of psychiatry, the treatment of psychiatric patients, the stigma of mental illness, and the suicide, in North Korea. Results : In North Korea, psychiatric department was called as 49th(pronounced as Sahsip-gu-ho in Korean). Only patients with vivid psychotic symptoms came to psychiatric department. Non-psychotic depression or anxiety disorders usually were not dealt in psychiatry. The etiology of mental illness seemed to be confined to biological factors including genetic predisposition. Psychosocial or psychodynamic factors as etiology of mental illness appeared to be ignored. Psychiatry was apparently separated from political or ideological issues. The mainstay of psychiatric treatment is the inpatient admission and out-of-date therapy such as insulin coma therapy. Stigma over mental illness was common in North Korea. Suicide is considered as a betrayal to his/her nation, and has been reported to be very rare. Conclusion : The situation of psychiatry in North Korea is largely different from that of South Korea. Although some aspects of North Korean psychiatry are similar to psychiatry in former socialist countries, North Korean psychiatry is considered to have also its unique characteristics.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.240-250
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• 2020

This study explores the process of transitional career choice for North Korean defectors who are successfully living their lives after transition to a different system labor market. To achieve this study purpose, what is the process of transitional career choice for North Korean defectors due to the system transition? At present, he (Ed- who is he?) has a subjective sense of success in his professional life and conducted in depth interviews with three men and eight women as objects that can explain the process of experience in rich and detailed ways. To this end, the author interviewed three men and eight women who are satisfied with their current job and analyzed them with the grounded theory method proposed by Strauss & Corbin (1998). As a result, the paradigm model was derived from the central phenomenon of 'conversion of perspective', and the core category was 'conversion of perspective and challenge new career'. The transitional career choice process was derived into four stages according to the flow of time and interaction as 'reality recognition stage', 'active change recognition stage', 'support and coping strategy stage', and 'growth stage' and positive reflections from transitional learning and potential factors of planned chance skills were found.