4.4 Findings
4.4.5 Another brick in the wall
admission” than good grades with children of the KWP officials receiving preference in admissions. Kyoung Hee states that students with a lowsongbun can receive good grades but still not be eligible for admission to top universities. She claims that only around 20%
of students are eligible to sit for college entrance exams and of those, less than 5% are eligible for admission into North Korea’s prestigious universities, which are typically those named after a Kim family member. “If you do not have a good family background, you cannot get in,” she explains. Similarly, Seung Ho says that family from the lower rungs of thesongbunladder tell their children to not even think about going to college because they are not from the rightsongbun.
Su Kyoung’s experience reflects a common reality for many individuals who have a desire to further their education but are not a member of North Korea’s core class. “I wanted to go to college,” she says. “That was my childhood dream; I wanted to graduate college and become a teacher. It was a simple dream, but growing up I realized I couldn’t simply by being a good student.” She laughs at this and continues, “When I was little, I thought I could achieve my dream through studying hard... But as I got older I realized that the North Korean system doesn’t allow you to achieve things solely through hard work. You need to be economically well-off and have a goodsongbun.”
Both Kyoung Hee and Seung Ho readily admit they were able to attend top universities in North Korea due to their family’s songbun. Kyoung Hee’s great uncle was a guerilla fighter under Kim Il Sung. “Because of my family background, I could enter a prestigious university,” says Kyoung Hee, who attended Kim Jong Suk University, an institution named after Kim Il Sung’s first wife and grandmother to North Korea’s current ruler, Kim Jong Un. She was one of 24 in her freshman cohort and the only person from her high school to enter university, speaking to how selective the admissions process was. Seung Ho shares similar sentiments, saying “I was only able to attend Kim Il Sung University because my family had a good songbun.” He adds that a person with a “bad songbun” cannot attend Kim Il Sung University. He also mentions his friends who were unable to attend university
at all due to their lowlysongbun.
Even with an education from one of North Korea’s prestigious universities, however, financial well-being is not a guarantee. Along with her feelings of relative deprivation after discovering the economic prosperity of South Korea, Kyoung Hee says she also had con- cerns that her salary as an elementary school teacher would not be enough to live on after she graduated. She feared future poverty and felt that if she could graduate from a univer- sity in South Korea, she would “have more chances to live.” Yong Jin, whose father was a member of the Korean Workers’ Party, was accepted for admission in Geumseong Middle School in Pyongyang. He says graduation from this middle school would have put him on the fast track for enrollment in Kim Il Sung University. Yet, there were still concerns in his family about potential occupation limitations. When asked about his motivations for leav- ing North Korea, the first thing he says is that his mother was concerned about the quality of education available for him and his sister. In other words, part of the reason for him and his family leaving North Korea was so that he and his sister could have access to better education and, in turn, greater vocational choices.
Though access to education may not be the central reason motivating most people to flee from North Korea, it does factor into the decision-making process and tends to present itself as a pro for leaving. Interestingly enough, the opportunity to freely pursue education played a big role for those who spent time in China. Work opportunities are limited for North Koreans in China because China does not recognize North Koreans as legitimate refugees. Consequently, North Korean defectors on Chinese soil are unable to take advan- tage of Chinese welfare programs. Moon Ju, a 30-year-old woman from Hyesan, saw her dreams of going to college in North Korea dashed when the 2009 currency reform wiped out her family’s savings. After spending 8 months working in a ginseng factory in China, she decided to defect to South Korea with the hopes of going to school to be a nurse (and is six months away from graduating nursing school in Seoul at the time of this writing). Re- latedly, Bo Kyoung’s mother feared arrest and repatriation while they were living in China.
She had Bo Kyoung leave first while she stayed and made money to pay off her debts from defecting. Instead of defecting to South Korea, however, Bo Kyoung’s mother instructed her to defect to the United States so she could receive a better education. Thus, in the North Korean context, access to education can play a considerable role for those who choose to defect - particularly those who choose not to stay in China.