[Choice Times= Kwak Dae-Jung (Team Leader, Office of Lee Jun-seok, Reform Party)]

At a briefing to President Lee Jae-myung on next year’s policy plans on the 19th, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young used the term “Bukhyangmin” instead of “North Korean defectors.”

Minister Chung stated that the government is “currently gathering opinions on a proposal to change the term ‘North Korean defectors’ to ‘Bukhyangmin,’” adding that “it is a fact that all defectors express strong resistance to the existing term, ‘talbukja’ (defector).”

President Lee and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok subsequently used the term Bukhyangmin during the briefing as well.

The Ministry of Unification is already known to be using the term internally. (Editor’s note)

Attempts to change the designation for North Korean defectors have been made repeatedly. Come to think of it, nearly every administration seems to have tried.

During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, there was an effort to establish the term “Saeteomin” (new settlers), but it failed. The term “North Korean defectors” (Bukhan ital jumin) was also used as an administrative label, yet it failed to take root in everyday language. Other proposals—unification people, one-people, free people, and countless others—likewise failed.

The most commonly used terms remain “talbukja” or “talbukmin.” In daily conversation, people often say “people from North Korea” or “those who came from North Korea.”

I feel a fundamental resistance to attempts to change terms that have already become established in everyday usage—unless they are expressions of hatred or discrimination.

Does changing terminology actually change anything?

Replacing the word “stroller” with “infant carriage” does not fundamentally improve women’s rights, nor does changing “menopause” to “completed menopause.”

It is the mentality of “we can’t solve the real problem, so let’s at least change this,” and it carries the strong scent of hollow formalism. It may be good for self-satisfaction—feeling as though something has been accomplished—but it contributes little to genuine social progress.

It brings to mind a certain administration that insisted “space determines consciousness” and claimed that moving the presidential office to Yongsan would somehow solve everything.

When surveys are conducted among North Korean defectors, many respond that they feel uncomfortable with the word “tal” (escape or break away).

At the same time, among early defectors there were those who proudly said, “We are people who escaped boldly,” and took pride in the term.

In the early 2000s, the cumulative number of defectors entering South Korea stood at around 2,000. Today, more than 30,000 defectors live among us. Their characteristics are extraordinarily diverse. Even a decade ago, “North Korean defectors” were widely believed to be politically conservative, but now their political views vary widely. There are all kinds of people among them.

This means that the very attempt to unify a designation by aggregating opinions or public sentiment is itself futile.

To repeat the point: terms that have already solidified through social convention have meaning precisely because “what has passed has passed in its own way.” It is better to leave them alone. We should refrain from futile attempts to manipulate reality by changing terminology.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, claiming they would eradicate petty-bourgeois intellectuals and create an egalitarian society, banned occupational titles such as “teacher,” “doctor,” and “professor,” and forced everyone to use the single term “comrade.”

In labor camps, people were stripped of their names and called only by numbers. The year 1975, when Phnom Penh was seized, was even declared “Year Zero.”

Yet none of this made the Cambodian people happier or more equal.

Language is the result of society; it is not an object to be commanded or standardized by decree. Existence does not determine consciousness. Rather, the repeated flow of consciousness eventually solidifies into a form of existence.

#LanguagePolitics #NorthKoreanDefectors #SymbolicReform