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| Joseph Park, a North Korean defector turned coffee shop owner, roasts coffee beans at one of his cafes in Seoul. Park has aided fellow defectors to get back on their feet through free barista lessons. Courtesy of Joseph Park |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Joseph Park, a North Korean defector, has been helping other colleagues get back on their feet in the South, as they face difficulties in finding economic independence and regaining emotional stability.
"It is difficult for defectors to adapt to the culture and to become independent here, as they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a lack of social capital, discrimination, identity crises and being separated from their families," Park said in an interview with The Korea Times.
"I saw in an article that South Korea's suicide rate is one of the highest among OECD countries, but I was saddened by the North Korean defectors' suicide rate here, which was three times that of South Koreans, so I wanted to find the means to help them adapt to society."
Park has been teaching defectors to become baristas at his coffee shop in addition to brainstorming "fun, relational, respectful" ways to help get them back on their feet.
"Starting last summer, we started a coffee bean roasting program for defectors," Park said.
It was a long and harsh journey for the 40 year old to defect to the South. He first walked 100 kilometers secretly crossing the North Korea―China border in 1998 and worked as an illegal immigrant "like a slave" for five years there.
In 2003, Park lived as a fugitive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for six months and again moved on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he stayed in hiding for four months, before arriving at Incheon International Airport in 2004.
"It takes a few hours to come to South Korea distance-wise from North Korea, but it took me five years to come to Seoul," he said.
Park says the first year after arriving to Seoul and adapting to the culture was one of the most difficult times he had encountered in his lifetime.
"I first thought we used the same language and share the same culture, but Seoul was filled with unfamiliar foreign languages and even in everyday conversations, I did not recognize many of the phrases spoken in Korean," Park said.
Joseph was chosen to take part in the Obama Foundation Leaders: Asia-Pacific Program, which is a one year leadership development and engagement program that seeks to empower, inspire and connect emerging leaders from the Asia Pacific region. Not only did the program allow him to meet like-minded people, it also influenced his way of thinking about problems. "I think change happens on the fringe, not in the center," he said. "If you connect lots of small things one by one, it can bring big changes."
