Young N. Koreans face ostracism in South

Deprogramming students
The school is funded by about 20 churches and other private donations, and bible classes are a part of the curriculum. Students are taught they shouldn’t be subject to ideology like in the North, but that each are “precious sons and daughters of God,” said Cho.

In one classroom, a student speaking in a North Korean accent reads a Korean legend from a standard middle-school textbook. Other lessons focus on famous artists, or talking about how history can be viewed from different perspectives, teachers said. Math, English and sociology are also taught.

Those who attend are fed and given transportation vouchers. Teachers also visit students at home on weekends to bring extra food, all part of the nurturing environment they seek to create for the defectors.

The students include five youths who braved the trip to the South on their own, without any relatives. One 21-year-old who is alone here said his hunger drove him at age 11 to swim across the river forming the North Korea-China border. He survived in China by begging, gaining the help of a South Korean priest to get schooling in China before making it to the South last year.

“I don’t have the basic knowledge to attend South Korean school,” said the student, who didn’t want his name publicized because of fears that relatives in the North could face punishment. “It was God’s will to bring me here,” he said of the Yeomyung School.

Lonely, but hope for the future
The student said the toughest part about living in the South now is spending holidays alone. He has tried to contact his parents back in his home village, but had heard they were dead, possibly from famine.

In the future, the student said he hopes to become an architect or doctor, possibly one day returning to the North if the Koreas are reunited.

The school’s president Woo said that’s just what he hopes — that someday his students can serve to help reintegrate the Koreas that both deeply long for reunification after decades of division.

“If North Koreans don’t understand South Koreans, these children can help them, be like ambassadors,” he said. “That’s why God let them live.”

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