President Yeom Jaeho who announced the project made an agreement with J.P Morgan to get a 24 million won donation every year from the establishment to start the project. After cautious consideration and planning, the project made its first step in solving the employment and establishment issues of the defectors. This voluntary program is especially meaningful considering how Korea University (KU) is the first educational institution in Korea to support the employment and establishment of defectors.

 

Professor Eur Do Seon (English Education), the head of KUSSO, explained the entire process of the project, including information about the specific lectures and field experiences provided to the defectors. The education program can be divided into three parts and these scheduled lectures and programs are held every Saturday in KU free of charge.

 

The first program ended in August after the selection of the participants in the first week of June. Professor Eur said, "We personally visited organizations related to the defectors to recruit participants who had a passion and will for starting a company or getting employed." In the end, after careful consideration, KUSSO had selected 61 North Korean defectors who had South Korean citizenship to take part in the program. Currently there are about 53 people who regularly participate in the programs and they each come from different age groups. Although about half of the defectors are in their 20s, the other half consists of people in their 40s or 50s.

It took six months for KUSSO to schedule the long-term program so that it could successfully enhance the professional capabilities of participants. Of the three parts of the program, the first mainly focused on basic business skills needed for employment. The second part of the program has recently started, and unlike the first part, it divided the programs into three classes to suit the needs of each participant. The defectors can take part in classes from one of the following subjects: food service, service, and retail business.

 

Not only do the three classes provide lectures based on the interests of the participants, but they also provide job fairs and field trip programs to work sites. For instance, Professor Eur mentioned that the defectors recently visited the workplace of BBQ Chicken and received first-hand experience related to the business. The third part of the program that is expected to be held next year will provide one on one consulting with CEOs from each field. In addition, a four week internship will take place so that the participants will be able to successfully fulfill their business goals.

 

According to Professor Eur, a special characteristic of the program is that KUSSO had put in great effort to provide high quality lectures to the participants. In other words, he emphasized that KUSSO only invites representatives, mostly CEOs, in the particular field of the lectures. Another noticeable feature is the amount of care KUSSSO gives to each individual. For instance, Professor Eur mentioned, "We call the North Korean defectors every two weeks to see if they can continue to learn with us." He mentioned that, "Unless we show continuous concern for them, they can easily loose trust in us and eventually drop out."

 

However, according to Professor Eur, the program has many obstacles in its way. The hostility of South Koreans makes it harder for the defectors to settle down with stability in Korean society. To overcome this attitude, the program even gives lectures related to healing the mind from negative elements. To show how people can survive even through harsh conditions, the project invited lecturers such as Kim Youngchul, the CEO of Youngchul Burger and Park So Yeon, the defector who currently owns a large store in South Korea that sells North Korean tofu.

 

To sum up, even though the program itself is of great help, there is even more reason why it should be fully supported. Professor Eur showed pity for how there are not many organizations outside of KU that successfully carried out a program that actually supported the employment of defectors thoroughly. The unemployment rate of North Korean defectors still stands high up in numbers despite such events. Therefore, as what Professor Eur had stressed, KU is one step forward in becoming the lead in providing the best quality education for the defectors, and the first successful educational model for other institutions. Although it is the first year that such a program is being implemented, positive results are already being reported. For instance, a defector has started his own internet business intended to provide information for fellow defectors.

 

The settlement of the North Korean defectors is not something that can be simply ignored, but it is a preparation for the unification era. According to Professor Eur, unless the 28 thousand defectors successfully settle down as workers in the South Korean capitalistic society, the entire society will be in chaos due to the contrasting ideologies and environment between the South and the North. It will be the educated defectors to the South who will eventually take part in mediating the differences after the Korean peninsula is unified.