23
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•
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Problems between married partners
Problems relating to bigamy or
cohabitation
Daily married life with South Korean men
Problems regarding children’s education
Supporting parents and nurturing infants
and children
Difficulties in employment training and
working life
Health and psychological difficulties
Anxieties over family left behind in North
Korea
Sense of devaluation in everyday life in
South Korea
► Consolidate counselling programmes for North
Korean refugee women
► Counselling programme on children’s education
► Programme to help North Korean refugee women
overcome psychological after-effects of the flight
process
► Support North Korean refugee women to find
employment
► Support for North Korean refugee women must be
differentiated and implemented with view to various
family forms
Shim Younghee (2006) tried to propose a human rights concept that is in line with the
distinctiveness of women and inquired into the human rights situation of women living
in North Korea. Although she provided a relatively radical analysis of women’s rights
from a feminist perspective, her research did not put many policy proposals forward.
<Table 2-10> Shim Younghee’s policy proposals
North Korean women’s human rights
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Policy proposals
Right to livelihood: discrimination against
women in distribution system
► Overcome famines and reconstruct the system
Right to economic activity: wage
► Establish a feminist human rights concept
discrimination against women
1. Existing human rights as men’s human rights
Rights relating to marriage and family:
2. Safeguard women’s human rights
sexual discrimination
Rights relating to body and sex: sexual
exploitation
3. Characteristics and tasks of existing fact-finding studies
Since the primary aim of this research is to study the situation of North Korean refugee
women, it is deemed necessary to examine the characteristics of existing fact-finding
studies and to consider tasks suggested for conducting situation studies on North
Korean refugee women’s human rights.
To begin with, the characteristics of existing situation studies can be summarized in
five points.