The government is reviewing a plan to change the terms "North Korean defectors" and "defectors from North Korea," which refer to residents who escape North Korea and defect to South Korea, to other names such as "Bukhyangmin (北鄕民)."
According to the Ministry of Unification and Gyeonggi Province on the 16th, Minister Jeong Dong-yeong of the Ministry of Unification disclosed at the opening ceremony of the Gyeonggi-region Unification Plus Center the previous day that a study is underway on replacing the legal term "North Korean defectors" and the commonly used expression "defectors from North Korea."
Minister Jeong said, "The word they hate most is the character '탈 (escape)' in 'defection,'" adding, "Defection—its nuance is not good," and, "So the Ministry of Unification decided to change the name a bit and commissioned a study. For now, calling them 'people whose hometowns are in the North,' 'Bukhyangmin,' seems to have the most support." He also asked the audience, "If we remove the character '탈' and go with Bukhyangmin, would that be okay?" Minister Jeong also voiced his views on changing the terminology during a policy roundtable with North Korean defectors at the end of last month.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Unification signed a service contract with the Korean Association for North Korean Migrants last month and began reviewing the need to change the terminology and candidates for new terms. The results are expected in Nov.
Negative assessments of the term have been steady within the community of North Korean defectors. According to a survey last year by the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) of North Korean defectors, 58.9% supported changing the legal term. Preferences for replacement terms were similar among "Hanamin," "Tongilmin," and "Bukhyangmin."
To change the legal term for North Korean defectors, the Act on the Protection and Settlement Support of Residents Escaping from North Korea must be amended. Some say that changing the widely familiar term "defectors from North Korea" will not be easy through a government campaign. Earlier attempts to switch to new expressions such as "Saeteomin" failed to gain much traction.
The Presidential Committee of National Cohesion under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration once proposed "residents with a North background" and "North Korean national defectors."
An official at the Ministry of Unification said the ministry is conducting a research project as basic material to comprehensively review whether a name change is needed to improve perceptions of North Korean defectors and promote social integration, whether to keep the legal term as is but change only the everyday appellation, and, if changed, which appellation would be appropriate.