<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Dear colleagues,<BR>
<BR>
I'm glad this has sparked such a keen wider discussion.<BR>
<BR>
On international marriage trends in rural South Korea,<BR>
the below from the JoongAng may be of interest.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
At the same time, I'd be sorry if these broader ruminations<BR>
let our friends in the North off the hook.<BR>
<BR>
Apart from the sheer offensiveness of the sentiments,<BR>
what struck me - not for the first time - is what a tin ear<BR>
the DPRK regime has for both communication/PR and global trends.<BR>
<BR>
You'd think that a state long active in the non-aligned movement<BR>
might conceivably have become dimly aware that:<BR>
<BR>
1. The great majority of nation-states in the world are multi-ethnic;<BR>
<BR>
2. Thanks to certain quite important and well-known global events<BR>
between c 1935 and 1945, notions of racial purity are utterly beyond<BR>
the pale in civilised company - above all, on the political Left.<BR>
<BR>
Of course, underlying social attitudes in Korea and elsewhere are a<BR>
different story. But for an official organ to write openly in this vein<BR>
and tone in 2006 is really something, no? Even for North Korea.<BR>
<BR>
Aidan FC<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 (alt) +44(0) 1264 737634 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com (alt) afostercarter@yahoo.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me know, so I can chide AOL]</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
____________________<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=6 PTSIZE=20 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">More biracial kids being born in Korea</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200604/06/200604062154023939900092309231.html<BR>
<BR>
April 07, 2006 ? At Jangsu Elementary School in Jangsu county, North Jeolla province, 20 of the 357 students are biracial. Three years ago, the first biracial student, half-Korean and half-Filipino, entered the school, which now offers special Korean classes for the growing number of children who need help, and introduces them to Korean friends to help them socialize.<BR>
<BR>
In the county, with a population of about 25,000, 150 couples were married last year. Forty-four of the marriages were international ones, mostly between Korean men and Southeast Asian women. In other words, about three of 10 Korean men in the county who married last year had foreign brides.<BR>
<BR>
Korea's proud identity of "one blood, one nation" is becoming outdated. The JoongAng Ilbo analyzed family registries collected by the Supreme Court from 249 cities, counties and districts around the nation from 2003 to 2005. <BR>
<BR>
The proportion of international marriages nationally has increased during the last three years, from 8.4 percent in 2003 to 11.4 percent in 2004 and then to 13.6 percent last year. <BR>
<BR>
Last year, Seoul ranked first in number of international marriages ? 14,804, followed by Gyeonggi province with 7,317 and North Gyeongsang province with 2,344. But the proportion of international marriages to all marriages was highest in South Jeolla province, at 18.5 percent, followed by Seoul's 18.2 percent and North Jeolla province's 17.6 percent. <BR>
<BR>
In 2003, South Jeolla province ranked only fifth in the proportion of international marriages, at about 8.5 percent. But the numbers and the prominence of foreign spouses, almost all foreign brides, have skyrocketed there in the past two years. The proportion also doubled in North Jeolla, the Gyeongsang provinces and South Chungcheong province in those two years. <BR>
<BR>
At the county level, Boeun county in North Chungcheong province topped the list of international marriages; 82 of the 205 marriages registered last year, about 40 percent, were international marriages. The proportion was only 20 percent in 2003 and rose to 28 percent in 2004. <BR>
<BR>
Some 37.6 percent of marriages in Hampyeong county in South Jeolla province involved foreign spouses in 2004; the figures were 37.5 percent for Imsil, South Jeolla province; 37.4 percent in Jinan, North Jeolla province, and 37.3 percent in Damyang, North Chungcheong province. <BR>
<BR>
Those are rural counties, and the number of international marriages is growing especially rapidly in the countryside, driven by a growing disenchantment with rural life among Korean women. According to data the National Statistical Office published on March 30, more than 35 percent of farmers and fishermen were married to foreign women last year, up from 27 percent in 2004. <BR>
<BR>
About 60 percent of foreign wives are from China, and most of them are thought to be ethnic Koreans, although the data do not say so. China has a large ethnic Korean population in the areas north of North Korea, and most brides from those areas speak Korean very similar to that spoken here. <BR>
<BR>
Another 18 percent of foreign wives are from other Asian countries, especially Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. According to one international marriage agency, provincial bachelors prefer Southeast Asian women despite their darker skin (racial differences are still subject to stares and comment here, as any expatriate knows) because ethnic Korean women from China have acquired a reputation of melting away into the cities to work after using their new husband only to get a visa. <BR>
<BR>
As the number of international marriages increases in the rural areas, rural villages are experiencing their own kind of "globalization" akin to that President Kim Young-sam used to preach. A Joongang Ilbo reporting team visited Boeun in North Chungcheong province, and Muju and Jangsu in North Jeolla province, and saw how rural villages have adapted to their new residents.<BR>
<BR>
Choi Yong-su, 44, of Muju married a Filipina in 1999. At that time, international marriages were very unusual and many bachelors backed out after seeing photos of prospective brides, saying such things as, "Our skin colors are different. How can we marry?" But now Mr. Choi says, "I often hear people tell me that they also want a Filipina wife. My daughter is very popular among her friends at kindergarten," he said proudly. <BR>
<BR>
Residents in Dukdongri village in Boeun often greet each other with a warm "Buenos dias." That followed the marriage of Yang Gwang-sun, 41, the village leader, to Eleanor Jinez, an Ecuadorian, nine years ago. Neighbors envy the couple's three children, who can chatter away in Korean, Spanish and English. <BR>
<BR>
The wives are also doing their own socializing. Twenty foreign wives in the village formed a club and have monthly meetings. Last fall, they organized an outing to Mount Sokri nearby. "We gossiped that Korean husbands are not kind at all," giggled Un So-ka, a 23-year-old Cambodian woman. <BR>
<BR>
Still, they have concerns about their children. Raemian Moon, 38, from Philippines, said, "I was tossing and turning in bed when I sent my five-year-old son to kindergarten, worrying that he might be shunned." Schools have borne much of the brunt of the changing composition in the communities. <BR>
<BR>
In North Jeolla province there are 755 biracial students, 700 in elementary schools, 44 in middle schools and 11 in high schools. Four out of eight new students entering Mupung Elementary School in Muju next year are biracial. <BR>
<BR>
Because many of the couples are young and rural families still tend to be larger than those in the cities, the number of biracial students is expected to grow. The North Jeolla provincial education office set up a team late last year to study how better to accommodate biracial students and ensure that they avoid the worst of language and social problems. <BR>
<BR>
In the past, when Korean men looked first to ethnic Korean women from China, international couples did not face the problem of "different-looking" children. At Gwanchon Elementary School in Imsil, North Jeolla province, where 12 students are half-Chinese or half-Japanese and could easily pass for pure Korean, teachers had not known that some students had foreign mothers until a survey was conducted last year. <BR>
<BR>
But as more Korean men marry women from other countries, things have changed. Kim Su-jin, 10, half-Korean and half-Filipino, said, "When I first entered school, I was hurt because my classmates were teasing me and saying my mom was African." Her nine-year-old brother was also harassed by his classmates. But their lives improved after teachers began intervening systematically on their behalf. Four half-Filipino students at the school are now making friends and catching up on their studies, the reporting team saw. "Foreign mothers are just as interested in their children's studies as Korean mothers," said Shin Byung-ho, the school's principal. "If the school cares more about those children, they will soon adjust." <BR>
<BR>
The Yecheon county government in North Gyeongsang province went into the matchmaking business itself, and arranged 16 marriages between Vietnamese women and Korean men last year. <BR>
<BR>
The Daegu city government and the North Gyeongsang Provincial Office plans to offer extra Korean language and mathematics classes for 200 biracial children starting this month. Damyang county in South Jeolla province has been holding English classes taught by Filipino wives, a move hailed by residents there. Nine women are now teaching English at 14 elementary schools.<BR>
<BR>
Jung Gwang-hee, a professor at Chungnam University, said, "An increase in international marriages in rural areas is inevitable, and a similar trend will appear in the cities in the future." That comment is supported by evidence that factory workers are beginning to join their country cousins in looking abroad for brides. <BR>
<BR>
In Guro, a district in southwestern Seoul, the percentage of international marriages has also increased, from about 10 percent in 2003 to 16 percent last year. In Ansan, Gyeonggi province, the rate increased from 6 percent to 11 percent over the past two years. Seol Dong-hoon of Chonbuk National University agreed. "It is time for the country to prepare for a multinational and multicultural society," he said. <BR>
<BR>
by Special Reporting Team <soejung@joongang.co.kr> <BR>
<BR>
__________________________<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
In a message dated 02/05/2006 19:15:15 GMT Standard Time, markpeterson@byu.edu writes:<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:<B>Re: [KS] North Korea says multiracialism is poison </B><BR>
Date:02/05/2006 19:15:15 GMT Standard Time<BR>
From:<A HREF="mailto:markpeterson@byu.edu">markpeterson@byu.edu</A><BR>
Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR>
To:<A HREF="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR>
<I>Sent from the Internet </I><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
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