Television Programs Featuring North Korean Defectors Are A Hit Among South Koreans
A number of television programs featuring North Korean defectors are becoming a hit among South Korean audiences. This shows that South Koreans are growing more interested about the life of people in North Korea, IB Times noted Monday.
Talk show programs have turned into a venue for North Korean defectors to talk about their personal lives and how they were able to escape from their homeland. Meanwhile North Korean bachelorettes are being paired with South Korean men in dating reality shows.
A former singer in North Korea, who now regularly appears on the talk show "Moranbong Club" said defectors want to prove to South Koreans that they are doing their best while living in the south.
"There's a lot of prejudice toward North Korean defectors in South Korea," Han Seohee said. "So I wanted to show South Koreans that we're living here and trying the best we can."
While many of the South Koreans seemed to like the idea of getting to know North Korean defectors through these programs, some people from the north is not so pleased with dating shows that pair North Korean women and South Korean bachelors.
"By casting defectors in their twenties, the TV shows emphasize North Korean women's innocence, and how little they know," said Lee Yunsho of Womenlink. "They are used to portraying submissive women inside the patriarchy."
She went on, "We need to show how North Korean defectors really live in South Korea, and try to show North Korea without any of the prejudices in our minds. We need a process of gaining more understanding between each other."
On the other hand, a research director for Liberty in North Korea said these programs expose South Korean audiences to different stories from defectors.
"They're talking about the growth of markets and new technologies in North Korea," Sokeel Park said, as noted by NPR Tuesday. "So gradually, the South Korean audiences are getting exposed to new kinds of stories or new characters from North Korea that previously there was just widespread ignorance of."
