Most North Koreans fleeing the country first go to China. But some North Korean women have subsequently had children with Chinese men, the women ultimately fleeing again to South Korea. Now, their children face an identity crisis, unsure whether they are North Korean refugees, Chinese, or South Korean.
Song Hong Ryon has been living in South Korea for 3 years. She is half-North Korean, half-Chinese. The 19-year-old has made only two South Korean-born friends since living here. She says she is often hurt by little things.
"I try to see things positively, but sometimes when I can't, I want to be alone and stay aloof from the world," she said. "Even if I complain about some difficulties I have, they aren't resolved. I've sometimes agonized alone and become sick."
In the late 1990s, Song’s mother fled from North Korea to China to avoid a famine at home.
Song said she was 10 when her mother left their home in the Chinese city of Yanji to flee to South Korea.
If they're able to reunite with their mothers in South Korea, many children like Song often feel alienated. They struggle to navigate a strange culture and sometimes a language barrier.
One South Korean school principal says there is a social bias against these kinds of children in South Korea. He says that, plus their own views about South Koreans, can make them give up on opportunities to develop themselves.
"As the principal, I think the greatest difficulty for half-Korean, half-Chinese children is the problem with self identity.”
According to the South Korean Education Ministry, as of April, about 1,550 such children were enrolled in primary through high school in South Korea. That's compared to about 980 North Korea-born students.
Because they don't have a direct link to North Korea, they cannot legally receive benefits that North Korea-born refugees enjoy.
In recent years, though, the government has tried to help by providing about $3,400 to their families. It has also dispatched more bilingual instructors to schools to help them.
In May, an opposition lawmaker proposed giving China-born North Korean children the same assistance as North Korea-born refugees.