Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
Young North Korean defectors' job hopping puts pressure on employers
Welders work in the factory of Jiye Industry located in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Jiye Industry
By Lee Yeon-woo
By Lee Yeon-woo
Jiye Industry, a Paju City-based small business producing and installing solar panels, experiences an upbeat mood whenever lunchtime comes. All eight staff working there gather around the table for food and to chat. Six of them are North Korean defectors, while the rest are South Korean by birth.
Their lively conversation isn't inhibited by any cultural differences and the team can, in general, communicate pretty smoothly. However, from time to time, some region-specific terminology does pop up that can result in some curious looks of puzzlement. For southerners, the North Korean accent can at times be a hurdle in understanding what their colleague says.
“When the conversation gets stuck because of the North Korean dialect or terms that we, South Koreans, don't understand, we just laugh. Then things just continue as though nothing happened,” Park Joo-hyun, the manager of the company, told The Korea Times. “We talk a lot. We talk about what bothered us in our work while having lunch, and we ask one another if there's anything we can help with. Things like that.”
Jiye Industry is a social enterprise founded by North Korean defector surnamed Yoo. After arriving in South Korea in the early 2000s, he worked several different jobs, mostly manual labor. While doing those jobs, he dreamed of establishing a startup where he could work with fellow North Korean defectors. After years of hard work, he finally made his dream come true. He founded Jiye Industry along with a fellow North Korean who asked to be identified only as Ko.
“We heard a lot about solar panels and the business opportunities. We teamed up to create a startup in that field because we thought it fits us. We have done lots of manual work, so felt that we can do it,” said Ko.
Ko said the business, having started from scratch, is going well after years of initial difficulties.
The annual sales revenue of the startup reached 1.5 billion won. It employs eight workers, six of whom are North Koreans by birth.
Jiye Industry staff on a construction site / Courtesy of Jiye Industry
The company was chosen by Korea Hana Foundation, a non-profit foundation established under the Ministry of Unification, as one of two exemplary startups, which hire North Korean defectors.
Although their business has been going smoothly, its management is faced with a fresh challenge ― a high turnover of staff.
According to them, many of the young North Korean defectors they employ, particularly those who are in their 20s, are job hoppers.
“They rarely stay in one job moving from one to another frequently,” said Ko. “For young North Koreans, who come to the South in their early 20s, this is because they feel they don't belong in this society.”
Constant job hopping has been a common occurrence for North Koreans living in South Korea.
In 2020, three out of five North Korean defectors in their 20s left their workplace before a full year of work, according to the Ministry of Unification. Only 10 percent of them worked more than three years in the same workplace, and the period of working gets longer as the age goes up.
Rep. Lee Sang-min of the Democratic Party of Korea addressed the job insecurity of North Korean defectors in October 2020. Citing a survey that found that North Korean defectors' average stay in their workplace is at 40 percent compared to an average year for South Koreans. The lawmaker said part of the reason comes from the nature of their employment. Most of them were involved in the manufacturing sector. He urged the government to draw up measures for North Korean-born workers.
Lee Ae-ran, a food researcher and the first female defector to earn a doctoral degree in food and nutrition, pointed out their feeling of insecurity as the main reason for them to frequently switch jobs.
“Young defectors tend to be persuaded easily by fellow defectors and acquaintances due to their insecurity and lack of knowledge. If one says that a certain worksite is good, then others go there too.”
Lee said cultural differences are one reason behind the constant job hopping. “If one defector receives a salary in cash, others demand their employers pay them in cash,” she said, explaining that they don't know how their employers would feel due to the cultural difference.
She added that some defectors prefer to remain unemployed because of the benefits given to them.
“Under the current law, a defector can receive financial support if diagnosed with mental trauma. It's hard to differentiate those who claim they suffer from trauma even though they're okay. Some defectors use the system in bad faith.” Lee strongly urged that the current system should be revised.
Jiye Industry staff install solar panels. Courtesy of Jiye Industry