Abstract

This study investigates North Korean refugees’ experiences and their implications as part of a process of reconstructing the destruction and loss caused by the Korean War. In particular, this study focuses on women who migrated from North Korea to South Korea and labored in the settlement projects. Migration between North and South in a divided political system was a path by which the aims of the two newly founded nations and the choices of individual agents interlinked and crisscrossed. The refugees’ reasons for migration were complicated and involved oppression by the socialist system in the North as well as familial and personal motivations. Furthermore, many were involuntarily evacuated due to military operations. After the war, resettlement projects were carried out in South Korea to incorporate refugees into society. During this time, women from North Korea struggled to survive and, in particular, to protect their families formed after marriage. They also worked hard to earn a living in resettlement areas after the war, laboring out of a will to survive, devotion to their families, and in an effort to overcome obstacles.