When you think about the North Korean people, what comes to mind? If you live in the West, the first words that may come to mind include brainwashed, ignorant, or loyal. The reality is much different.
The youth generation in North Korea may just be the biggest threat to the North Korean regime. Unlike their relatives who grew up in the still stable 60s and 70s, millennials and Gen Z have no recollection of a prospering North Korea free of the poverty sweeping the state today. Officially referred to as the ‘marketplace generation’ in North Korea, young North Koreans have learned how to provide for themselves through the advancement of black markets and technology, securing access not only to living essentials but also to contraband like foreign media and fashion. As the primary drivers of foreign items in the state-wide black markets, the youth of North Korea are more aware of the promise of freedom outside of the regime than older generations. As the proportion of youth defectors increases, it is time to challenge the prevailing notion that North Korean citizens are blindly following the regime and focus instead on what is motivating the youth to challenge it.
Perceptions about North Koreans in the West tend towards the sensational. North Koreans are often portrayed as brainwashed and undyingly loyal to the regime, perpetuating the narrative that they cannot think for themselves. These perceptions not only make it difficult to empathize with the real stories of North Korean people but also make the situation on the Korean peninsula seem hopeless. After nearly 80 years spent divided, greater awareness of the capabilities of the North Korean people is necessary to figure out the path to reunification.
First, it is important to understand how North Korean youth engage with the outside world. Foreign media within North Korea usually originates from South Korea, China, or the United States, and includes TV shows, music, and magazines. Digital media is smuggled into the country on CD disks and USB sticks before being sold or rented out by black marketeers, who more often than not are youth. USB sticks are covertly exchanged after viewing at schools and other youth gathering places. At home, youth secretly watch dramas hidden under the covers or behind closed curtains.
Foreign fashions are just as popular among the black market youth. Fashion items like blue jeans have been banned by the regime in recent years because of their salience as symbols of “Western imperialism” and cultural change. Youth caught wearing foreign fashions face punishments ranging from losing workplace advancement opportunities to public doxxing on the country’s propaganda radio program, Third Broadcast. However, despite the threat of consequences, youth still find ways to follow the trends of the actors and actresses they see in their contraband dramas, with many “true fashionistas” skipping the physical markets to buy banned items directly from black marketeers selling items like Western makeup and blue jeans directly out of their homes.
Take Kang Jihyun, who defected in 2009. Defecting because of her dream to become a fashion designer, Kang’s story represents a growing trend of young North Koreans who defect for career opportunities and personal freedom. Kang’s journey to South Korea started with a simple pair of ripped blue jeans. After seeing a foreign tourist wearing the pair of ripped jeans, Kang became curious about all kinds of foreign fashions that seemed strange within North Korea’s strict clothing restrictions. Kang’s interest in fashion continued to grow despite “social and academic barriers” within North Korea, leading her to engage with any foreign media she could find in order to view the extensive fashion styles featured within.
Kang’s story highlights a growing push for freedom by North Korean youth—a “quiet information revolution.” As access to foreign items within North Korea increases, so does the public’s perception of freedom outside of North Korea. Of North Korean citizens’ foreign media viewing habits, researcher Sunny Yoon said: “The viewing patterns of foreign media in people’s daily lives may be one of a few indicators of social change in North Korea”. The youth population comprise nearly a quarter of the entire North Korean population and are the ones most often interacting with foreign materials. With this in mind, the role of the North Korean youth will “naturally eclipse” the role of the older generations in the future of North Korea, especially as youth become more connected with the outside world through technology and black markets.
It is this increasing connection with the outside world that allows the generational traits of young people in North Korea to be understood through the lens of youth worldwide. In interviewing 120 American Generation Z (Gen Z) youth and parsing through nearly 70 million online writing samples from Gen Z authors, Stanford researchers found that compared to older generations, Gen Z are more likely to “question rules and authority”, especially when those rules concern issues of truthfulness. This matches existing perceptions of the generation, which often characterize Gen Z as more “individualistic” than their older counterparts, with a significant focus on “authenticity” and “self-expression”.
North Korean youth, most of whom are now Gen Z, display these same general trends of individualism as their Western counterparts. When asked about the meaning of freedom, a young North Korean defector responded that freedom is “‘being able to work in a certain place if you want and not if you don’t want, being able to do your own business if you want, living where you want and being able to go where you want’,” illustrating young North Koreans’ belief that freedom is based in choice and expression. In the case of Yu Hyuk, who made the journey to South Korea alone at just 12 years old, music has become an outlet for authentic self-expression. Now 25, Yu is pursuing a career as a KPOP idol in the group 1VERSE . “‘Seeing that even North Koreans can have big dreams, I hope that other marginalized people can also have big dreams as they live their lives,’” Yu expressed while in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Generational differences surrounding the value of authenticity also show in how North Korean youth interact with sanctioned state media and propaganda. Interviews of young North Koreans resettled in South Korea suggest that when North Korean youth watch state media, they watch with a conscious effort to resist the propaganda messaging. Interviewed defectors said of watching North Korean state media that it appeared “‘unreal’”, and that conversely, South Korean media depicted a “genuine life story.” In interacting with foreign media, North Korean youth are finding freedom in engaging with authentic accounts of self-expression, fighting the propaganda messaging implicit in North Korea’s state-sponsored television and music. The difficult choice made by many young North Korean defectors to seek freedom outside of North Korea is underpinned by generational ideas of individualism and the importance of authenticity.
Going forward, people outside of North Korea can support the growing movement of young defectors in a multitude of ways. South Korean citizens can express support for better readjustment programs for resettled North Koreans in South Korea, with a specific focus on breaking down educational barriers to success. Additionally, organizations like Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) and People for Successful COrean REunification (PSCORE) fund everything from grassroots movements to increased access to foreign media in North Korea, paying for North Korean citizens to defect and educational programs for resettled defectors in both South Korea and in the US.
Any effort to change perceptions of North Korean citizens may help usher in a brighter and freer future. North Korea’s youth will continue to fight for opportunities to defect and achieve the freedom they glimpse on the horizon. In their interactions with foreign and state media, there is no doubt that this generation will be the biggest threat to the North Korean regime in the coming years.
Featured/Headline Image Caption and Citation: North Korean Students, Image sourced from Flickr | CC License, no changes made