전후 북한여성의 삶과 탈북의 전략적 선택

Abstract

This paper examines the lived experiences of five North Korean women who have lived in South Korea since they left North Korea between 2001 and 2006, based on oral interviews with them. The interviewees were born between 1928 and 1936 in North Korea, and left North Korea and settled down in South Korea when they were between 68 and 78 years old. Three women of the interviewees married men from South Korea, and it affected their family’s choice to escape to South Korea. One woman received help to escape to South Korea from her husband’s siblings in South Korea and the U.S.. Three women attained membership of Labor Party and lived relatively better lives in North Korea. The interview shows the way in which women lived their lives under the strict political oppression and why they chose to escape to South Korea. The study of North Korean women will broaden women’s history of Korea, which has been mainly focused on the women’s lives of South Korea. Women’s history has also been divided into North and South since Korean war. The scholars of women’s history need to have interest on the history of North Korean women in order to fill the lacuna of modern Korean women’s history.