Interview
The Next Generation of Leaders on North Korean Refugee Issues
Interview with Woori Lee,
Executive Director and Co-Founder of Aurora NK
Sejong Society: As the co-founder of Aurora NK, could you tell us about how the organization was founded and the initial motivation for its creation?
Woori Lee: During COVID I went back to South Korea and continued volunteering at North Korean refugee organizations that I had worked for [throughout] the past several years. During the pandemic, those organizations shut down their programs for multiple reasons, but one of them was basically not having enough funds to support and affirm refugees. At that time, I was tutoring several [North Korean] students, and one of them asked me if I could continue tutoring her [after the program shut down] so I did. She asked me if she could continue tutoring other students and friends as well, so I was like, “Yeah, of course!” She also asked me if I had any friends that were willing to help her, so I started asking my friends at USC and UCLA–and that's basically how Aurora started.
Sejong Society: We saw on Aurora’s website that you also have a personal connection to this issue because of your grandfather. Did that also drive you to create this organization?
Lee: Yeah, I have been interested in North Korean refugees since I was like 13 or 14 because my grandfather was a refugee from North Korea during the Korean War, and I lived with him when I was younger. I saw the struggles that North Korean refugees [face] because, basically, my grandfather's parents were in North Korea and he [wasn’t] able to see them after the Korean War, so it really impacted him. And you know, of course, assimilating into a new society and a lot of things played a role in his struggles. I've always been interested in North Korea and what the political situation was, but after my grandfather passed away, it really got me to be more engaged in an organization that helped North Korean refugees. That's when I learned that a lot of North Korean refugees struggle with similar situations and maybe there are foundational causes that cause those struggles, and maybe we can help.
That definitely played a role in creating certain departments of Aurora NK including ones on education, legal aid and healthcare. When we were creating our Aurora NK, I basically asked like 35 refugees what they need specifically and how we can help when we're building a new organization. They talked about English education and [how] a lot of them wanted to immigrate to the United States, which [requires] legal aid, and how a lot of them struggle with mental and physical health in South Korea. So that's why we built those three departments.
Sejong Society: Could you tell us about the work Aurora NK does, and what students and young professionals interested in Korea can do to get involved?
Lee: Right now we have a lot of volunteers helping all those three departments. First of all, in terms of college students around the US who speak English fluently, they tutor North Korean refugees twice a week, thirty minutes per session, and then they basically help them with anything that North Korean refugees are in need of–maybe like its English fluency or grammar or writing or preparing for a certain test. The Aurora NK team prepares the orientation as well as educational materials for tutors to use, and currently right now [Aurora is partnering] with a company in South Korea to build a free online English curriculum for North Korean refugees. So if any students are interested, they can also help with that too.
In terms of legal aid, we mainly focus on helping the return refugees achieve legal status. We work with pro bono lawyers and hold immigration clinics so that North Korean refugees can talk to lawyers and [learn] how to achieve legal status in the United States. Currently we have a lawyer who has a lot of experience helping North refugees achieve legal status in the United States, so we are going to work with them to hold another immigration clinic as well as training sessions for [other] pro bono lawyers to learn about how the [U.S.] process works.
In the healthcare team, currently [Aurora is working] with a nonprofit organization called Free Med in South Korea to prepare free clinics as well as mental clinics for nurturing refugees in South Korea. We're also planning to provide template resources for North Korean refugees in the United States on how to achieve low cost healthcare insurance. We have been providing them low-to-free cost mental health clinics as well.
Sejong Society: Can students that are not based in the United States also get involved?
Lee: For sure. Aurora NK is trying to involve students worldwide who are interested in helping North Korean refugees. We have students from Australia, the United Kingdom, and India. If they're interested in helping North Korean refugees and this issue, they're more than welcome to help.
Sejong Society: What issues or problems do North Korean immigrants typically face in the United States? Are their unique problems resulting from their background?
Lee: I think that's a really, really great question. So one thing is that when North Korean refugees [leave] North Korea, most of them come to South Korea because they speak Korean, and it's very difficult for them to go directly to another country. So a lot of them come to South Korea and they achieve South Korean citizenship. But, the thing is that South Korea is actually very difficult country for them to live in for multiple reasons, like discrimination and prejudice. Second, a lot of North Korean refugees actually fear revealing their identity even online because there have been occasions where the North Korean government came to South Korea and then brought refugees back to North Korea. It’s a really bad situation because they can be tortured, their whole family can be jailed, and there are a lot of difficult issues revolving around that.
That's why we created the legal aid department because a lot of different refugees I talked to really wanted to emigrate out of South Korea and move to different countries, mainly the United States. The thing is that when they come to the United States, they don’t have refugee status anymore–they're South Korean citizens–so they have to go through the immigration process that other South Korean citizens go through. That's what we're trying to solve here. We are trying to help North Korean refugees prove that they're from North Korea and then they [hopefully] can receive refugee status again and the immigration process will be much shorter, maybe a year. If they can't do that, then the immigration process will be much, much longer, like maybe six to seven years or even longer than that.
Sejong Society: The refugee situation is odd because there are not only those issues, but also the US and the UN standards for who counts as a refugee and what qualifications you have to have in order to be considered a refugee under two different systems. Trying to navigate those two systems for people who are obviously not familiar with it is certainly a challenge.
Could you discuss educational issues North Korean refugees face, not just with English language, but also with other aspects like getting acclimated to a very different environment?
Lee: Because North Korean refugees are an immigrant population, they face the struggles that a lot of immigrant populations face. But the really unique thing about North Korean refugees is that they don't know how to speak English almost at all when they first come to the United States because in North Korea you're not exposed to any other language than Korean. Even the language in South Korea and North Korea is a bit different because Korean [in South Korea] integrates a lot of foreign words. When North Korean refugees first come to the United States, they struggle even more with the language barrier because they don't know how to speak English.
The second thing is that even though there is a [significant] North Korean refugee community in the United States, it's not [that big]. I have been talking to a lot of different refugees and found that they feel isolated or it's really difficult for them to assimilate into a new society, because there's not a lot of [people like them]. There's not a lot of people who actually understand their struggles and what they're going through.
The third thing is healthcare. When refugees come [directly] to the United States, they can have free healthcare insurance for a short period of time, but that's not enough for them to actually learn about the complex health care system in the United States and how to achieve insurance. In North Korea, and even in South Korea, the healthcare system is pretty low cost, and even insurance is like $10 a month or something like that. In North Korea, of course, the healthcare system is free, but when they come to the United States they have to learn about how to pay for insurance and how the system works. That's why the healthcare department of Aurora NK is trying to write a template in Korean explaining how they can achieve insurance and how the healthcare system works in the United States.
Sejong Society: Part of the lack of the visibility problem also might be the role that the COVID-19 pandemic has played. If I remember correctly, in 2020 the number of North Korean refugees seeking admission into South Korea was at its lowest ever. Since then it appears that North Korea's controls on its borders have increased dramatically and so it's definitely an issue that needs more visibility and more attention. It seems to me that what Aurora is doing is not only providing healthcare and legal services and education, but also helping relieve a bit of that isolation and providing friendship and companionship.
Lee: That’s one of the unique things about Aurora NK, because it is a student-run organization. We’re trying to create this more friendly and approachable organization where North Korean refugees can just ask any questions they may have. Also, we're preparing a new program with another organization in the LA area. We are going to create a friendship community where North Korean refugees who come to the United States can connect with college students in the LA area and help them assimilate into the United States and [deal with] any other struggles that they might face.
Sejong Society: It seems like students are uniquely suited to be involved with these issues. Would you agree with that?
Lee: Because Aurora NK is a student-run organization, we're also trying to create this community where students gather together and connect with each other so that they can be leaders on North Korean refugee issues. In my opinion, in the next few decades, Korea will be unified even though it's not going to be [total] unification. I think with the right direction Korea will be able to achieve unification step-by-step and I honestly foresee that a lot of people from Aurora NK can be leaders on this issue, whether it is from legal, diplomatic, or healthcare aspects. I'm really excited to see what the future brings to us.
Sejong Society: I'm really glad to hear that some people are optimistic that a solution or good news can come out of the Korean Peninsula and its division. Where do you see Aurora going in the next five years? Are there aspects of these efforts that you personally find particularly rewarding?
Lee: I think it's just creating a community for college students. Like I said, I think [Aurora NK members] will definitely play a huge role in the next generation of North Korean refugee issues. I also want to make sure that Aurora NK stays as a student organization, because it's unique. I'll be graduating from college next year, and I'll be attending graduate school after that, but after I graduate from school, I want to work with people from Aurora NK in a professional context and make sure that it stays a student organization.
To learn more about Aurora NK, visit their website or follow them on social media.