Pastoral Care for North Korean Refugees and a Geopolitical Approach to Practical Theology: A Qualitative Study

Communist North Korea (NK), which claims that its identifying characteristic is independence from foreign influence, threatens the lives and security of its people within its own borders as well as in other countries. Even though many countries provided unconditional humanitarian aid to help its suffering citizens, the NK government refuses to share that aid with its people, using it instead to further its militaristic agenda. The people have experienced years of trauma and disaster as they have been exposed to an environment in which starvation, death and ongoing political manipulation and oppression do not cease. Many North Koreans (NKs) have fled their country as their only way to survive, and they wander around China and certain other countries before finally finding their way to South Korea (SK). On this journey, because of complications of international geopolitics, the escaped NKs receive no protection. Instead, they are exposed to more traumas and constant fear of being repatriated to NK where concentration camps wait for them.;Unfortunately, once they are in SK, even though their legal status assures them the safety of being citizens of SK, for complicated geopolitical reasons, they are offered no adequate opportunity to recover from past traumas, but now join the ranks of the marginalized "others" within SK society. Thus, they experience difficulty in adjustment and in beginning new lives with any sense of equality as South Koreans (SKs).;This study aims to make the voices and experiences of the marginalized North Korean Refugees (NKRs) to be heard or to be brought to the surface. This study also intends to create a space in SK in which NKRs can have better experiences as they go through healing and find some space in which they can be understood by SKs. An NKR group, Saetco church, in SK agreed to be the research partner and cooperated by participating in a written survey and interviews. Their experiences from NK and China to SK are explored and geopolitical and historical information is incorporated to explain the background of NKRs' experiences. Based on this information, suggestions are made of methods that would facilitate NKRs healing from their traumatic experiences from the past and their negative experiences in the present. This study also presents several suggestions that would address the geopolitical factors in a way that would improve the ability of NKRs and SKs to understand each other.