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Hence, it is necessary to extract human rights problems that specifically and solely
arise from a position or status that is called ‘North Korean refugee woman’.
Furthermore, to further focus our observations on the reality of human rights
violations against North Korean refugee women by means of relativization, it is also
very important to compare North Korean refugee women with persons living in their
vicinity. For example, when conducting a fact-finding study on North Korean refugee
women sojourning in China, it may be very fruitful to compare their human rights
situation with that of the Chinese ‘underclass’ they find themselves living with.
Secondly, even if the analysis of recent refugees’ inclination to flee North Korea has
not been considered the object of a full-scale fact-finding study, we deem it an
important topic that should be borne in mind by the researchers conducting this factfinding study. Research on the causes that lately lead North Koreans to flee their
country is currently progressing to some degree. This is probably due to the fact that
an understanding of this matter is highly important for those who are involved in
providing resettlement support, employment training, and livelihood support activities
vis-à-vis North Korean refugees on a practical level.
With a growing recognition of the fact that the causes prompting North Korean
refugees to leave their country in recent years are not grounded in unvarying
structural factors but are diversifying to some degree, the view is being held that a
perspective that traces the act of fleeing North Korea back to a single cause is limited.
According to the causes and reasons that have been suggested lately, there are three
typifications of flight from North Korea.
•
Ideological type: aversion to the North Korean system becomes a reason to
attempt to flee North Korea
•
Livelihood type: food shortages and other economic reasons lead to an attempt to
flee North Korea together with family members
•
Well-being type: attempt to flee North Korea in pursuit of a better life