Ex-North Koreans Refuse to Go Home No Matter What

SOKCHO, South Korea - There is one thing North Koreans who fled the communist state half a century ago have in common with more recent defectors to the South -- none ever wants to go back there to live.

Peace will be the dominant theme at next week's inter-Korean summit, only the second between the leaders of what have become two starkly different Korea states. As the South turned itself into one of the world's most powerful economies over the past 30 years, the North became one of its poorest.

"There is beautiful scenery where I used to live," Shin Man-shik, 75, said, reminiscing about his hometown in South Hamgyong province. "All I want to do is to go for a visit. I just have no desire to go back to live."

Shin is a long-time resident of Abaimaul, which in North Korean dialect means "Town of Grandpas". Abaimaul is a village of low-lying houses near the east coast port of Sokcho where North Koreans who fled south during the 1950-53 Korean War have gathered over the decades.

Sokcho is just a few minutes drive from the heavily mined border that divides the Korean peninsula, guarded by around 1 million soldiers from both sides.

The old men in Abaimaul never intended to leave their homes for good.

"We expected it would be a week, or 10 days at most," said another resident, Kim Sung-pil, 72. "We thought then we'd go back north. That's why the men didn't bring their families and just came by themselves."

But the fighting raged for three years before ending with an inconclusive truce. Without a peace treaty that would have allowed them to go home, the men settled down in the South to a life as fishermen, for a time doing well catching Alaska pollack or building fishing boats and homes for the growing town.

Kim is from Musudan in North Hamgyong province, just a rustic town when he sailed away in a wooden boat half a century ago but now a top-secret military site where the North tested long-range missiles.

"When I first heard about the missiles, I had my doubts they could really manage it, but later I realised it is all intended to prolong the dictatorship."

He was referring to Kim Jong-il, who became head of the world's first communist dynasty when he inherited the leadership from his father, the founder of reclusive North Korea and since his death in 1994 its president for eternity.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said he hopes to discuss permanent peace on the peninsula when the two leaders meet on Oct. 2-4, with the eventual signing of a formal treaty to end their fratricidal war and expanding economic ties.

But North Koreans who have fled to the South expressed deep scepticism that the summit would convince Pyongyang to open its doors wider or pave the way for national reunification.

"Maybe it (reunification) will happen one day a long time in the future, when we are no longer in this world," said another long-time exile, Park Jae-kwon, 75. "But I don't see it happening soon. It just cannot happen."

STRUGGLING

Kim Min-sue, 33, who fled his homeland but had to spend four years in China before he finally arrived in South Korea in 2001, has held one job after another, struggling to adjust to the South's fast-paced capitalist lifestyle which offers little sympathy to defectors from the hermit North.

But even so, returning is not an option.

"You can't even start comparing South Korea's flaws to the North's," Kim said at his home in Seoul. "That's how superior South Korean society is."

While the exiles who settled in Abaimaul were driven south by ideology, recent arrivals such as Kim Min-sue were also fleeing excruciating oppression and dire economic hardship.

In the early years of national division, the North had the economic upper hand but years of ruinous policies have turned it into a country that relies on aid to feed its people.

Some defectors have given up the battle to survive in the South.

Earlier this month, Kim Yong-sil jumped from her 10th floor apartment after failing to bring her young son to South Korea from China, first stop for nearly all defectors from the North.

Many defectors blame South Koreans and their government for not doing enough to help the newcomers settle.

"I hope this is the last time this happens," Park Sang-hak, a fellow former refugee, said at Kim Yong-sil's funeral.

"She put her life on the line to come to South Korea, the land of freedom and hope, but left without completing her responsibilities to her son."