North Korean defectors had a three times higher suicide rate than South Koreans, said a North Korean defector and head of a women’s group for human rights of North Korean female defectors living in the South.

Nam Young-hwa, president of the Women’s Association for the Future of Korean Peninsula, cited a 2015 report on “Causes of deaths of North Korean defectors” released by the Ministry of Unification to highlight the suicide risk among North Korean defectors, at a forum on “Suicide and Proposal for Suicide Prevention” at the National Medical Center on Wednesday.

According to the report, the proportion of suicide deaths out of the total deaths of North Korean defectors stood at 15.2 percent (five out of 33) in 2015, more than three times the rate of South Korea at 4.9 percent (13,513 out of 275,895).

Nam attributed the high suicide rate of North Korean defectors to the traumatic sense of isolation and financial difficulties they go through after fleeing.

“I was one of the elites in the North but couldn’t get a job in the South. South Korean society was prosperous, but my reality wasn’t. I hated everything, and I thought I was going to die that way,” Nam said.

“Defectors attempt to commit suicide because of the mental suffering, depression, schizophrenia, and stress that they went through in the third world countries after defection. Other causes of suicide include witnessing their families being shot to death, living in a prison camp, and going through an extreme famine,” she added.

North Korean defectors tend to make extreme choices of killing themselves because they are reluctant to get treatment due to their negative perception toward mental disorders.

“To prevent suicide, North Korean defectors should see a psychiatric physician and get counseling. But they refuse to do so because trauma and depression are all called psychosis in the North,” Nam said. “If we say to them to go to a psychiatric clinic, they will get very upset for being treated like a psychopath.”

According to Nam, the mentally ill in the North are all isolated to a hospital called “Hospital No. 49.” Located inside a remote mountain, families can visit them every few months. Not only patients but their families are stigmatized as the mentally ill and face all kinds of disadvantages, she said.

“North Korea regards suicide as a crime against the state. So, suicide is very rare across the whole country. Suicide is an act of betraying the state, and their children will be banned from going to college,” Nam said. “So when they defect to the South, they’re more likely to commit suicide. That is why we should approach them more carefully.”

She urged the government to support the suicide prevention policy and help the currently active counseling center for sexual abuse victims among North Korean defectors, trauma center, and suicide prevention center.

While the government spends 400 billion won ($371.4 million) a year to prevent car accidents, its budget for suicide prevention is too small at 8.5 billion won a year, she said.

Nam emphasized that the government should spend more to save precious lives and adopt a state system to pay more social attention to North Korean defectors and prevent them from committing suicide.

minju9minju@docdocdoc.co.kr

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