[KS] North Korea says multiracialism is poison

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Dear colleagues,

I'm glad this has sparked such a keen wider discussion.

On international marriage trends in rural South Korea,
the below from the JoongAng may be of interest.


At the same time, I'd be sorry if these broader ruminations
let our friends in the North off the hook.

Apart from the sheer offensiveness of the sentiments,
what struck me - not for the first time - is what a tin ear
the DPRK regime has for both communication/PR and global trends.

You'd think that a state long active in the non-aligned movement
might conceivably have become dimly aware that:

1. The great majority of nation-states in the world are multi-ethnic;

2. Thanks to certain quite important and well-known global events
between c 1935 and 1945, notions of racial purity are utterly beyond
the pale in civilised company - above all, on the political Left.

Of course, underlying social attitudes in Korea and elsewhere are a
different story. But for an official organ to write openly in this vein
and tone in 2006 is really something, no? Even for North Korea.

Aidan FC

AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University 

Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK 
tel: +44(0)  1274  588586         (alt) +44(0) 1264 737634          mobile:  
+44(0)  7970  741307 
fax: +44(0)  1274  773663         ISDN:   +44(0)   1274 589280
Email: afostercarter at aol.com     (alt) afostercarter at yahoo.com      website: 
www.aidanfc.net
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me 
know, so I can chide AOL]

____________________

More biracial kids being born in Korea
 
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200604/06/200604062154023939900092309231.html

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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." 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

by Special Reporting Team <soejung at joongang.co.kr>  

__________________________






In a message dated 02/05/2006 19:15:15 GMT Standard Time, 
markpeterson at byu.edu writes:


> Subj:Re: [KS] North Korea says multiracialism is poison 
> Date:02/05/2006 19:15:15 GMT Standard Time
> From:markpeterson at byu.edu
> Reply-to:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> To:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 

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