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North Korean defector Park Choong-kwon, left, attends a campaign rally in Seoul for the People Future Party (PFP), a satellite party of the ruling People Power Party (PPP). He was elected second on the list of proportional representation candidates, making him effectively elected. © Jun Michael Park/The Washington Post
Park Choong-kwon moves from Kim Jong Un's weapons program to South Korea's parliament. But his path was not easy. What is his mission in the elections?
Seoul - Park Choong-kwon was once a ballistic missile researcher in North Korea - one of the top minds tasked with developing Kim Jong Un's beloved weapons program. Next week he will become a South Korean lawmaker, making him only the fourth refugee from authoritarian North Korea to sit in the South's democratic legislature. He comes to this task with a mission.
Elections in South Korea: defectors from the north aim for parliament
"As a defector, I think I should play a role in inter-Korean relations," said Park, 38, who is set to enter the National Assembly in Wednesday's election. He is running for President Yoon Suk Yeol's conservative party, which takes a hard line on North Korea. The incumbent is expected to win the election under proportional representation, which guarantees a party a certain number of seats based on the share of votes cast for it.
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After escaping Kim Jong Un: North Korea defectors seek membership in the National Assembly
There are currently two North Korean defectors in the National Assembly: Tae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat who is running for re-election, and Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean human rights activist who is resigning from office.
Park and another refugee, 32-year-old Kim Geum-hyok, who also ran for the Conservative Party in South Korea's elections but has since withdrawn his candidacy due to lack of opportunities, have drawn attention to the ambition of young North Korean refugees to strive for a leadership role in South Korean society.
The two men want to help set the agenda for inter-Korean relations and the most important issues facing future generations in both Koreas, and as leaders to bridge the gap between the two halves of the peninsula in the event of reunification. They want other younger South Koreans to become interested in reunification, even if the majority of their peers consider it unnecessary.
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“I felt that civil society alone can't achieve much when it comes to human rights in North Korea... but political institutions can do a lot,” says Kim, describing his motivation for entering politics.
The two know what they're talking about.
People Future Party candidates at a campaign rally in Seoul this week. © Jun Michael Park/The Washington Post
Doubts about the regime in North Korea: Why US missile expert went to the South
Park fled North Korea at the age of 23 after his doubts about the North Korean regime became too great. He had studied at North Korea's National Defense University, a training school for engineers and specialists who develop the country's missile technology, which the regime sees as crucial to its survival and security.
Kim was one of the few students from the prestigious Kim Il Sung University who had the opportunity to study abroad. The isolated regime selects top students to provide them with much-needed expertise from abroad, even if it means exposing them to the outside world.
But during his stay in China, he became so involved with foreign ideas that he attracted the attention of North Korean security authorities. At the age of 20 he decided to escape.
As members of North Korea's ultra-elite who had demonstrated their political loyalty to the regime, Park and Kim enjoyed elusive privileges and were expected to guide the repressive country's future.
“To the extent that the regime invested in them, they were North Korea’s future,” said Hanna Song, executive director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, a Seoul-based NGO that works closely with defectors.
Despite tensions between North Korea and South Korea: defectors want to help both countries
They could have continued to live comfortably in the north. But instead they risked their lives to escape. Now they're trying to change South Korea's democratic system, bringing their experiences as millennials who grew up in both Koreas.
Song said they show what's possible when you have the freedom to shape your own life: a right that North Koreans living in a totalitarian state don't have.
“The fact that they have used their experiences in the North to transform them into something they want for a better future across the Korean peninsula could be a strong signal to both North and South Korean youth.” says Song.
Millennials were once seen as a beacon of hope for change in North Korea
Park and Kim are part of a generation of millennials who grew up in North Korea in the 1990s, when capitalism took root in the theoretically communist state. Activists say they are the biggest force for change in North Korea.
They are called the “Jangmadang Generation,” named after the markets that emerged after a devastating famine that showed the state was unable to provide for its population. Those who survived did so by producing, selling or buying food in the markets.
This group grew up with access to goods from China and South Korea - including television shows and films that opened their eyes to life in a larger economy and freer society. They have become more open to the outside world and disillusioned with their own government, experts say.
“Even when I was in North Korea, the consciousness of the younger generation changed dramatically,” says Park, who left the country in 2009.
Young generation never believed Kim Jong Un's promises
“When I was in North Korea, there were a lot of rumors about Kim Jong Un [as the country's potential successor]. Other younger North Koreans were a little skeptical,” Park added. “He's about the same age as us, but North Korea spread the rumor that he was a great genius. It was hard to believe.”
The young refugees found the transition into South Korean society easier than older defectors who found it difficult to adapt to capitalism. Many are finding ways to use their life experiences in various professional fields to bring about positive change on the Korean peninsula and to draw global attention to the plight of North Koreans, Kim said.
“As the Jangmadang generation, we have experiences of life in North Korea that Millennials in South Korea do not have,” Kim added. “This means that we can develop unique and new ideas through these insights.”
But they don’t want to be forced into a single “defector” identity. For one thing, they both have a dual identity as people born in North Korea who have spent most of their adulthood as South Koreans, giving them a unique understanding of life on the Korean peninsula, they say.
Furthermore, their life experiences are not representative of the vast majority of the 34,000 North Koreans resettled in the South since 1998, most of whom are women and have no university education. Most South Korean youth would also find it difficult to relate to the elite education the two men received in both Koreas.
After escaping North Korea across the Chinese border to Seoul, Park earned a doctorate in materials science and engineering from one of South Korea's top universities and landed a coveted job as a senior researcher at Hyundai Steel.
In the National Assembly, Park wants to help shape science, technology and tax policies that affect the engineering and industrial sectors that have fueled South Korea's economic rise as a manufacturing powerhouse. “As someone with experience in South Korea’s industrial sector, I believe that innovation in our country’s corporate regulations and labor markets is absolutely necessary,” he said.
But he also said he agreed with Yoon's tough stance against the North's provocations and his efforts to strengthen deterrence measures with the United States and Japan. “North Korea is inherently unable to stop its provocations,” he said. “We must help North Korea find a different exit strategy ... and become a normal country” that meets global standards.
Population decline and economic crisis: defectors hope for reunification
Both men are convinced that the Koreas will reunite and that preparations must begin now, by carefully examining the internal changes in North Korea and preparing the South Korean public in their views on North Korea and its people.
"The only way to solve South Korea's various problems, including population decline, economic crisis and polarization, is through reunification," Kim said. “We need to expand our territory and population and develop markets.”
Kim, who has built a public image since arriving in South Korea in 2012 by speaking out on North Korean issues, appearing regularly on television shows and running a YouTube channel, was unsuccessful this time. But he really wants to shine in politics. He worked on Yoon's campaign and transition team in 2022 and moved to the Department of Patriots and Veterans Affairs as a policy advisor in 2023.
He already has his sights set on the next election in four years. “I'm only 32 years old. ... I'm using this [election cycle] to gain experience," Kim added. “As long as we don’t give up on democracy, there will definitely be another election.”
About the author
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
is the Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief, covering Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on April 8, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.