Three North Korean children found wandering in northeastern China have been granted refugee status in the United States, and overseas rights groups say there could be thousands more. These “second-wave” orphans are mostly the children of North Korean women who were forced to marry Chinese men. But the problem isn’t new. Georgeta Mircioiu, 75, worked with North Korean orphans in her native Romania from 1952-59. Thousands of North Korean children had lost parents during the 1950-53 Korean War, and many were sent to like-minded Communist countries including China, the Soviet Union, and Eastern European countries. Here’s what she had to say about that experience. “Between 1952 and 1960, about 3,000 North Korean orphans were taught at special schools in Romania. About 1,000 were high-school and college students, and about 2,000 were younger,” Georgeta Mircioiu said in an interview.
“All of the other Eastern bloc countries offered to look after North Korean orphans, but Romania took the greatest numbers. Only about 500 orphans were sent to Bulgaria. All of them arrived in Eastern Europe after being housed in China for a while. Their voyage by train took about 10 days.”
“Some of the orphans were street children. Some were the children of deceased high-ranking North Korean officials, who still had families in the North, but were sent to Romania because the living conditions were better there. Romania was not great either, but at least they had good food, clean and decent shelter, and good sanitation and hygiene.”
“Many of the North Korean children were sick when they arrived in Romania. After the Korean War, due to poor nutrition and hygiene, many of them had parasitic diseases, such as intestinal worms or scabies. Some of them even had to be hospitalized for a while. When I arrived at the school in 1952, the school year was supposed to begin on Sept. 15, but it actually began on Oct.1, due to a quarantine caused by an infectious disease outbreak.”
“The language of instruction was Korean. The Romanian teachers taught P.E., fine arts, Romanian and Russian. Some of the children spoke excellent Romanian, but we’d still have to write instructions on the blackboard in both languages, to make sure everyone understood. Even the P.E. teachers had to give their instructions in Korean in the beginning, until the children learned enough Romanian.”
“The orphans had a rather regimented life-style, beginning with a trumpet wake-up call in the morning. Birthdays were observed, generally once for all the children celebrating their birthday within the same week, with paper flowers made by the other children and sweet treats in the cafeteria. During their summer and winter vacations, those who had good grades were sent to holiday camps in the Carpathian Mountains or on the Black Sea coast.”
“In 1958, a North Korean Red Cross delegation composed exclusively of female members arrived at the school. Then, all children began to cry, telling the North Korean women that they were homesick and wanted to go back. They were told that living conditions were much better in Romania, being able to study there was a great opportunity and bringing them back would not be easy decision to make. However, in 1960, all North Korean orphans in Romania were sent back.”
“The Romanian teachers and all Romanians who had an opportunity to get to know these children were very fond of them. After their return to North Korea, some of them were lucky enough to be sent to foreign language high schools or colleges, or to study fine arts and film. I remember one of them, who used to visit us quite often when we lived in North Korea, who became a diplomat. Others were not so lucky. Despite having done very well in school in Romania and speaking fluent Romanian, they were sent to work in factories, coal mines or were enlisted in the military, wherever the Workers Party needed them.”
Original reporting in Korean by Jang Myeong-Hwa. Korean service director: Kwang-chool Lee. Interview with Georgeta Mircioiu and translation from Korean and Romanian by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Written and produced for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
Filed under: Newsdesk, east_asia, north korea, north_korea, trafficking | Tagged: adoption, defectors, northkorea, north_korea, pyongyang, trafficking, tumen
This is an interesting story, a follow up piece on some of the orphans would be informative. Is there anything out there (there where the lights go out)about what happened to some these children, did they find their way back to Romania, did they have lives that were similar to other children without the interesting experience in the land of Vlaad.. did they develop interesting habits..
One diplomat two fine artists and many miners OK I think I can figure out the picture, but why send them out at all..
Shokkumasta, you have asked some very interesting questions. It appears that none of these children have found their way back to Romania. Why send them out at all? Well, many communist totalitarian states have gone through this cycle. After all, purges are a favorite method employed by communist dictators.
After sending young people to study overseas, once they return, the authorities realize that their newly gained perspective may pose a threat to the status quo, and most or all of them are subsequently sidelined.
Ms. Mircioiu’s native country, Romania provides a couple of relevant examples. Immediately after World War II, as Romania fell into the Soviet sphere of influence, many of the high-ranking government officials were Soviet-trained. After Nicolae Ceausescu assumed power in 1965, he purged many of the government officials who had studied in the Soviet Union, many of whom had Russian wives. The move was aimed and consolidating his grip on power, but it was not necessarily unpopular with average Romanians, weary of the Soviet influence of two decades.
In the early 1970s, Ceausescu gave the impression of attempting to open up toward the West, receiving Western investment, high-profile visits from statesmen including President Nixon, and sending Romanians to study in the U.S. and Western Europe.
However, after 1971, Ceausescu’s own personality cult began to take shape, the economic situation began to worsen, and human rights violations became widespread once again. Western-educated Romanians were supposed to become the able new technocrats, but Ceausescu’s regime perceived them as a threat to the status quo, and they were sidelined, most of them assigned jobs that wouldn’t get them anywhere.
Probably North Korea was not much different. Immediately after the Korean War, being able to send young people to study abroad may have been perceived as an opportunity, but once they returned, their rather different upbringing may have been seen as potentially threatening to the Kim Il Sung regime.
According to Eastern European women married to North Koreans in the 1950s, including Ms. Mircioiu, the turning point for them was the year 1959.
As a rift developed between Nikita Khruschev, the Soviet leader, and China’s Mao Tse-tung, North Korea’s Kim Il Sung made it clear that he was on Mao’s side. Eastern European women married to North Korean men, residing in North Korea, Russian women in particular, became the target of persecution. Many of them were forced to leave North Korea, and then were never allowed to return to rejoin their families. Ms. Mircioiu herself and her daughter have been unable to see their North Korean husband and father for 45 years.
Within this context, as North Korea was declaredly on Mao’s side within the context of the Sino-Soviet rift, it is very likely that young people educated in the Soviet bloc may have been sidelined on purpose, by assigning them to jobs in factories or coal mines or drafting them in the military, despite their unique qualifications and experience.