My friendship with an older classmate who defected from North Korea and entered university with me as a freshman has continued to this day, and we’ve remained as close as brothers. It was thanks to him that I became interested in the realities of North Korea at a relatively young age, and through him, I connected with other North Korean defectors, which deepened my interest in North Korea even further. During my time as a corporate expatriate in the U.S., I had the opportunity to meet missionaries working in North Korea, both directly and indirectly, through a Korean church. Deeply moved by their efforts and dedication, I have been sponsoring one of those missionaries ever since.

​What’s interesting is that while the North Korea I encountered through my defector friend was the life of the Pyongyang elite, the reality of disabled people in North Korea that I learned about through the missionary was a completely different world. Furthermore, the recent escape routes I learned about through author Lee Ji-sung’s *10,000 Kilometers*, and the lives of those who make their way through those perilous paths to defect to South Korea or a third country, were yet another life drama. This contrast is as stark as comparing life in the affluent Gangnam district to life in the shantytowns of Guryong Village.

​However, through recent interactions with neighbors, I learned that they are involved in ministry work helping North Korean defectors. Hearing the stories of actual defector families struggling to settle in South Korea was yet another profound shock. While there may be cases of defectors who have successfully settled, the reality is that the majority are struggling to survive without having adapted, and the stories shared by my neighbors were, without exception, tragic and heartbreaking.

​Although the government initially provides various resources and programs to assist with resettlement, once that support ends, they must carry on with their economic activities on their own in the harsh reality. They say that everything—from the concept of private property to a state system governed by the rule of law rather than a leader-centered regime—is inevitably unfamiliar and overwhelming to them. In particular, because they lack a developed sense of human rights and human dignity, their understanding of class, power, and the law is weak, leading to many cases where they commit wrongdoing without even realizing what they’ve done wrong.

​Since they have no concept of God, they do not know what justice or freedom is, and they find it difficult to accept that justice must be applied fairly to everyone and that freedom comes with responsibility. When I heard that they even have to be taught how to brush their teeth from scratch due to a lack of basic necessities, it struck me that North Korean defectors are like children who grew up on a deserted island without learning anything. Not a beautiful deserted island, but the one that served as the setting for the movie *Lord of the Flies*.

​What I thought would be a brief conversation ended up lasting all day, and we stayed up late into the night, sharing our backgrounds, faith perspectives, and deeply personal stories. It was a time of serious reflection on how North Korean defectors can adapt well to South Korea and grow into mature citizens. We also decided to invite a North Korean female student who visited our church during last year’s Christmas concert to our Sunday service and to help her naturally integrate into our youth service. I look forward to seeing how God will guide this work in the days ahead.