User:AVM SIB/sandbox

 Psychological and Cultural Adjustment 

North Korean defectors experience serious difficulties connected to psychological and cultural adjustment once they have been resettled. This occurs mainly because of the conditions and environment that North Koreans lived in while in their own country, as well as inability to fully comprehend new culture, rules, and ways of living in the host state.

Difficulties in adjustment often come in the form of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is essentially a mental disorder that develops after a person has experienced a major traumatic event. In case with North Koreans, such traumatic events and experiences include brutality of the regime, starvation, ideological pressure, propaganda, political punishments, and so on.

Some studies have found the direct connection between physical illness and PTSD - PTSD serves as an explanation of the link between the exposure to trauma and physical health: exposure to trauma leads to worsening of the physical health condition because of PTSD. PTSD-related symptoms include disturbing memories or dreams relate to the traumatic events, anxiety, mental of physical distress, alterations in the ways of thinking. Depression and somatization are two of the conventional forms of PTSD, both of which are diagnosed among North Korean defectors with females having larger statistic numbers of the disorder diagnoses.

According to a recent survey, about 56% of the North Korean defectors are influenced by one or more types of psychological disorders. 93% of surveyed North Korean defectors identify food and water shortages and no access to medical care and, thus, consent illness as the most common types of their traumatic experiences preceding PTSD. Such traumatic experiences greatly influence the ways North Korean defectors adjust in new places. PTSD often prevents defectors from adequately assimilating into a new culture as well as form being able to hold jobs and accumulate material resources.

Traumatic events are not the only reason why North Koreans experience difficulty adjusting to the new way of living. Woo Teak Jeon conducted interviews with 32 North Korean defectors living in South Korea and found that other adjustment difficulties that are not related to PTSD occur due to such factors as the defector's suspiciousness, their way of thinking, prejudice of the new society, and unfamiliar sets of values. In many instances, North Korean defectors seem to be unable to easily adjust to the new way of living even when it comes to nutrition. According to research conducted by The Korean Nutrition Society, North Koreans used to consuming only small portions of food in North Korea daily, continue to exercise the same type of habits even when given an abundance of food and provision.

Psychological and cultural adjustment of North Koreans to the new norms and rules is a sensitive issue, but it has some ways of resolution. Accord to Yoon, collective effort of the defectors themselves, the government, NGOs, and humanitarian and religious organizations can help make the adjustment process smoother and less painful.

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 General Critiques and Observations:  "Psychological and Cultural Adjustment" section has already been offered by another editor a couple of year ago, but it simply went unnoticed. This is an issue that is very relevant to the North Korean Defectors topic. Most of the North Korean defectors experience difficulty adjusting to a new country. The levels severity of the hardship vary, but there is definitely a correlation between the traumatic experiences prior to resettlement and difficulties in adjustment both culturally and psychologically.
 * 1) The North Korean Defectors article generally has a lot of valuable information on various aspects of who the defectors are, what they are going through once successfully defected, and what they face if they are caught. The information that is already available, however, need some correction and edits - some sentences are poorly written and it is not quite possible to understand the meaning of those and their connection to the rest of the article. There are also some minor errors in grammar and punctuation - all of it is easily identifiable and correctable. Below there are some sections that I have already corrected or am in the process of correction. But generally, almost every section needs more proofreading and editing on the spot.
 * 2) Some data in the article is already quite old and has not been updated in years, which is another thing that needs to be checked and corrected.
 * 3) There are some great sections in the article that give a great overview of the problem, but, to my mind, there could be some more additional sections that could help provide a better picture of the problem and would help represent the issue in a more fair light.

There is quite a bit of scholarly literature on the case, which makes it possible and desirable to add the section to the article, which is exactly what I am planing to do.

Here are some of the possible bibliographical sources: *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
 * 1) Bidet, Eric. "Social capital and work integration of migrants: The case of North Korean defectors in South Korea." Asian Perspective 33, no. 2 (2009): 151-79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42704676.
 * 2) Chang, Yoonok, Stephan M. Haggard, and Marcus Noland. "Migration Experiences of North Korean Refugees: Survey Evidence from China." SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1106323.
 * 3) Choi, Seul Ki, Sang Min Park, and Hyojee Joung. "Still life with less: North Korean young adult defectors in South Korea show continued poor nutrition and physique." Nutrition Research and Practice 4, no. 2 (2010): 136. doi:10.4162/nrp.2010.4.2.136.
 * 4) Choo, H. Y. "Gendered Modernity and Ethnicized Citizenship: North Korean Settlers in Contemporary South Korea." Gender & Society 20, no. 5 (2006): 576-604. doi:10.1177/0891243206291412.
 * 5) Chung, Byung-Ho. "Between Defector and Migrant: Identities and Strategies of North Koreans in South Korea." Korean Studies 32, no. 1 (2008): 1-27. doi:10.1353/ks.0.0002.
 * 6) Davis, Kathleen. "Brides, Bruises and the Border: The Trafficking of North Korean Women into China." SAIS Review 26, no. 1 (2006): 131-41. doi:10.1353/sais.2006.0004.
 * 7) Haggard, Stephan, and Marcus Noland. "The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response." 1-76. doi:ISBN 0-9771-1111-3.
 * 8) Jeon, Bong-Hee, Moon-Doo Kim, Seong-Chul Hong, Na-Ri Kim, Chang-In Lee, Young-Sook Kwak, Joon-Hyuk Park, Jaehwan Chung, Hanul Chong, Eun-Kyung Jwa, Min-Ho Bae, Sanghee Kim, Bora Yoo, Jun-Hwa Lee, Mi-Yeul Hyun, Mi-Jeong Yang, and Duk-Soo Kim. "Prevalence and Correlates of Depressive Symptoms among North Korean Defectors Living in South Korea for More than One Year."Psychiatry Investigation 6, no. 3 (2009): 122. doi:10.4306/pi.2009.6.3.122.
 * 9) Jeon, Woo-Teak, Shi-Eun Yu, Young-A Cho, and Jin-Sup Eom. "Traumatic Experiences and Mental Health of North Korean Refugees in South Korea."Psychiatry Investigation 5, no. 4 (2008): 213. doi:10.4306/pi.2008.5.4.213.
 * 10) Kim, Jih-Un, and Dong-Jin Jang. "Aliens among brothers? The status and perception of North Korean refugees in South Korea." Asian Perspective 31, no. 2 (2007): 5-22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42704587.
 * 11) Kim, Mike. Escaping North Korea: defiance and hope in the world's most repressive country. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub., 2008.
 * 12) Lankov, Andrei. "Bitter Taste of Paradise: North Korean Refugees in South Korea." Journal of East Asian Studies 6, no. 01 (2006): 105-37. doi:10.1017/s1598240800000059.
 * 13) Lankov, Andrei. "North Korean Refugees in Northeast China." Asian Survey 44, no. 6 (2004): 856-73. doi:10.1525/as.2004.44.6.856.
 * 14) Lee, Yunhwan, Myung Ken Lee, Ki Hong Chun, Yeon Kyung Lee, and Soo Jin Yoon. "Trauma experience of North Korean refugees in China." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 20, no. 3 (2001): 225-29. doi:10.1016/s0749-3797(00)00282-8.
 * 15) Margesson, Rhoda, Emma Chanlett-Avery, and Andorra Bruno. "North Korean refugees in China and human rights issues: International response and US policy options." Congressional rept., September 26, 2007, 1-42. ADA473619.
 * 16) Min, Pyong Gap. "The Structure and Social Functions of Korean Immigrant Churches in the United States." International Migration Review 26, no. 4 (1992): 1370. doi:10.2307/2546887.
 * 17) Nanto, Dick K., and Mark E. Manyin. "China–North Korea Relations." North Korean Review 7, no. 2 (2011): 94-101. doi:10.3172/nkr.7.2.94.
 * Wu, Anne. "What china whispers to North Korea." The Washington Quarterly 28, no. 2 (2005): 35-48. doi:10.1162/0163660053295239.
 * 1) YOON, IN-JIN. "North korean diaspora: north korean defectors abroad and in South Korea." Development and Society 30, no. 1 (June 2001): 1-26. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.558.2070&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

 CORRECTIONS AND EDITS 

 North Korean Defectors [intro section needs some minor edits, rephrasing, rewording, and touch ups - marked and commented on in bold here]

Since the division of Korea after World War II and the end of the Korean War (1950–1953), some North Koreans have managed to defect for political, ideological, religious, economic or personal reasons.

Starting from the North Korean famine of the 1990s, more North Koreans have defected. The most common strategy is to cross the border into Jilin and Liaoning provinces in northeast China before fleeing to a third country, due to China being a relatively-close ally of North Korea. China, being the most influential of few economic partners of North Korea while the country has been under U.N. sanctions for decades, is also the largest and continuous aid source of the country. To avoid worsening the already tense relations with the Korean Peninsula, China refuses to grant North Korean defectors refugee [added the link] status and considers them illegal economic migrants. [added the link] About 76% to 84% of defectors interviewed in China or South Korea came from the Northeastern provinces bordering China. If the defectors are caught in China, they are repatriated back to North Korea where they often face harsh interrogations and years of punishment, or even death in political prison camps such as Yodok camp, or reeducation camps such as Chungsan camp or Chongori camp.

Even though the number of North Korean defectors reached its peak in 1998 and 1999, the estimated population is believed to have declined since then. Some main reasons for the falling number of defectors especially since 2000 are strict border patrols and inspections, forced deportations, and rising cost for defection. During the mourning period of Kim Jong-il 's death on December 17, 2011 and the start of Kim Jong-un's ruling [this needed rephrasing since the regime did not change with the change in leadership], the movements of people were tightened and strictly controlled. This included requiring families that live near the border areas to take turns standing guard [this one is weirdly phrased too, what would be a good substitution?] as well as having strong official warnings that three generations of a family would be destroyed if caught defecting, also having the defector being executed on-site [this one is also weirdly phrased, is there w way to connect it to the rest of the sentence more smoothly?]. The number of North Korean defectors have dramatically decreased as a result.

'''[There needs to be some smooth connection to this next paragraph. Like a general phrase leading into this case specifics]''' A prominent defection occurred in April 2016 by 13 North Korean restaurant workers in Ningbo, Zhejiang province of China. This group defection is significant to the human rights and forced repatriation issues of North Korea since the workers have decided to defect in a group instead of monitoring each other. They also legally crossed the border between North Korea and China with official passports and visa issued from the North Korean government. After being educated on security and South Korean social issues, all 13 North Korean defectors were approved for social resettlement in August 2016. An interview request from Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society) regarding whether the defect was voluntary or not was ignored and rejected.

 Demographics [this section also needs some corrections]

Since 1953, 100,000–300,000 North Koreans have defected, most of whom have fled to Russia or China. , some 30,000 have defected to South Korea.

Starting from 2008, especially after the Kim Jong-un regime in 2011, the number of North Korean defectors fell between 20,000 and 400,000. '''[that's a very large gat between the numbers? does this mean it fell to 20,000 from 400,000? or does that meant that the data is so unreliable that the error is so huge?]'''

Professor Courtland Robinson of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University estimated that in the past the total number of 6,824 and 7,829 children were born to North Korean women in the three Northeastern Provinces of China. Recently, survey results conducted in 2013 by John Hopkins and the Korea Institute for National Unification (also known as KINU) showed that there were about 8,708 North Korean defectors and 15,675 North Korean children in China’s same three Northeastern Provinces which are Jilin, Lioning and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. '''[The sentence needs correction. Were when? For what year? In total or for the specific period of time?]'''

Based on a study of North Korean defectors, women make up the majority of defections. In 2002 they comprised 55.5% of defections to South Korea (1,138 people) and by 2011 the number had grown to 70.5% (2,706 people). More women leave the North because, as the bread-winners of the family, they are more likely to suffer financial hardships. This is due to the prevalence of women in service sector jobs whereas men are employed in the military — 33% of defectors cited economic reasons as most important [This sentence needs restructuring - About 33% of defectors cited economic migrant reasons as important due to the prevalence of woman in the service sector jobs and men being employed in the military?]. Men, contrary to women having primarily economic reasoning [changed the wording a little], had a higher tendency to leave the country due to political, ideological or surveillance pressure.

China [this section also needs some corrections]
there were an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 North Koreans hiding in China making them the largest population outside of North Korea. According to the State Department estimates, 30,000 to 50,000 out of a larger number of hiding North Koreans have the legal status of refugees. These refugees are not typically considered members of the ethnic Korean community, and the Chinese census does not count them as such. Some North Korean refugees who are unable to obtain transport to South Korea, marry ethnic Koreans in China, and settle there — they blend into the community but are subject to deportation if discovered by the authorities. Those who have found 'escape brokers', try to enter the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. In recent years, the Chinese government has tightened the security and increased the number of police outside the consulate.

Today there are new ways of getting into South Korea. One is to follow the route to the Mongolian border; another one is the route to southeast Asian countries that welcome the North Korean defectors (e.g. Thailand). [restructured the sentence a little and added the link]

During the mid 1990s, the percentages of male and female defectors were relatively balanced. In early to mid-1990s, male labor was considered valuable in China since North Korean defectors could work in Chinese countrysides and factories and secure hideout in return. However, due to rising social security issues such as crime and violence that involved North Koreans, the value of male labor decreased. Females, on the other hand, were able to find easier means of settlement including performing smaller labor tasks and getting married to Chinese locals. As of today, 80-90% of North Korean defectors residing in China are females who settled through de facto marriage — a large number of them experienced forced marriage and human trafficking.

Before 2009, over 70% of female North Korean defectors were victims of human trafficking Due to their vulnerability as illegal migrants, they were sold for cheap prices around 3,000 to 10,000 yuan. [added the link for better understanding of currencies and faster navigation] Violent abuse started in apartments near the border with China, from where the women were then moved to cities further away to work as sex slaves. Chinese authorities arrested and repatriated these North Korean victims. North Korean authorities keep repatriates in penal labour colonies (and/or execute them), execute the Chinese-fathered babies "to protect North Korean pure blood," and force abortions on pregnant repatriates who are not executed. After 2009, the percentage of female North Korean defectors that experienced human trafficking decreased to 15% since large number of defectors began to enter South Korea through organized groups led by brokers. However, the actual number may be larger considering that many female defectors tend to deny their experience of prostitution.

China refuses to grant refugee status to North Korean defectors and considers them illegal economic migrants. The Chinese authorities arrest and deport hundreds of defectors to North Korea, sometimes in mass immigration sweeps. Chinese citizens caught aiding defectors face fines and imprisonment. In the early to mid-1990s, Chinese government was relatively tolerant with the issue of North Korean defectors. Unless the North Korean government sent special requests, Chinese government did not display serious control of the residence of North Koreans in Chinese territory. However, along with intensified North Korean famine in the late 90s, the number of defectors sharply increased which raised international attention. As a result, China increased the level of inspection of North Korean defectors and began their deportation.

In February 2012, Chinese authorities repatriated North Korean defectors being held in Shenyang and five defectors in Changchun from the same location. The case of the 24 detainees, who have been held since early February, garnered international attention due to the North reporting harsh punishment of those who attempted to defect. China repatriates North Korean refugees under a deal '''[treaty maybe? there is one on the China-North Korea partnership]''' made with North Korea, its ally. Human rights activists say those repatriated face harsh punishment including torture and imprisonment in labor camps.

South Korean human rights activists are continuing to stage hunger strikes and appeal to the U.N. Human Rights Council to urge China to stop the deportation of the refugees.

Human rights organizations have compiled a list of North Korean defectors repatriated by China. For some of them the fate after repatriation to North Korea ranges from torture, detention, prison camp to execution. The list includes humanitarian workers, who were assassinated or abducted by North Korean agents for helping refugees.

 Double Defectors [this section also needs some corrections] 

In some cases, defectors voluntarily return to North Korea. Exact numbers are unknown, but, their number is thought to be increasing [A proper definition of who double defectors actually are needs to be formulated and inserted]. Double defectors either take a route back to North Korea through third countries such as China, or may defect directly from South Korea. The Unification Ministry of South Korea has publicly acknowledged only 13 double defections. Three of those have since defected to South Korea again, one of these defectors was charged by South Korea upon return. However, the total number is thought to be higher than 13. A former South Korean MP estimates that in 2012 that about 100 defectors returned to North Korea through China. About 700 defectors living in South Korea are unaccounted for and have possibly fled to China or Southeast Asia in hopes of returning to North Korea. In one case, a double defector re-entered North Korea four times.

North Korea under Kim Jong-un has started a campaign to attract defectors to return with promises of money, housing and employment. According to unconfirmed reports, government operatives have contacted defectors living in South Korea and offered them guarantees that their families are safe, 50 million South Korean won ($45,000), and a public appearance on TV. North Korea has aired at least 13 such appearances on TV where returning defectors complain about poor living conditions in the South and pledge allegiance to Kim Jong-un.

In 2016, Kim Ryon-hui's request to return to North Korea was denied by the South Korean government. [this case either needs more information on it as well as a good general lead in or it has to be removed].

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