Produced in collaboration with SBS Korean
TRANSCRIPT
In a Sydney kitchen, North Korean defectors prepare traditional foods from their homeland.
Tofu rice and pork blood sausages are considered special treats and reserved only for feast days.
Cornmeal cakes are a popular snack, made from precooked flour so they can be prepared without gas or electricity.
But for Kumyoung Choi, they bring back painful memories.
“Once, a friend of mine told me her wish was to eat a piece of this cornmeal cake, and she passed away the very next day. She starved to death. Thinking about that incident still hurts my heart a lot.”
Kumyoung fled North Korea at the age of 15, crossing the frozen Duman River and enduring four years of immense hardship in China before arriving in Seoul.
Now, living on the Sunshine Coast with her South Korean husband and two children, she's a successful businesswoman, running eight restaurants and a YouTube Channel aimed at helping other defectors.
“My dream wasn’t that big. It was just meeting a nice man, having beautiful children, and living a life without worrying about food or a place to sleep, so I got more than what I wished. My dream has come true, but I thought my dream could be someone else's dream. So, I started a YouTube channel.”
Kumyoung is the driving force behind a unique event.
Seven North Korean defectors and their families have come together with South Korean migrants for an exchange of food, concert and conversation.
According to the last Census, there are currently more than 80 registered North Korean-born people living in Australia.
Kumyoung says this event is the largest gathering of North Koreans ever in Australia.
“Just as flowers bloom in the north, flowers bloom in the south , they are flowers no matter where they bloom.”
After feeling like an outsider while living in Seoul, Kumyoung says she wants to break down barriers in her adopted country.
“I was discriminated against and ignored by my own ethnic group. It was the saddest thing. Then I thought of going to a place where there is no north and south. That place was Australia.”
Her experience is not unique, according to Professor Bronwen Dalton, a former director of the National Korean Studies Centre, now with the University of Technology, Sydney.
“Often North Koreans are treated with a degree of distrust from South Koreans. Some might be concerned that they are spies. Others feel that they are a drain on government resources, and (there are) other types of othering (because) they don't follow these social norms of South Koreans.”
Defector Kwangjin Lee came to Australia with Kumyoung's help.
He says his worst memories from North Korea are of hunger.
“I was one of three brothers and we had to stay home for three days because we had nothing to eat. It was winter. Of course, that meant we had no energy left. I remember lying on the cold floor, starving for three days straight.”
He hopes the cultural exchange can help bring people of the North and South together.
“Personally, I think it was very meaningful and special as people like me from North Korea were able to be part of the Korean community.”
Ryde City Councillor Daniel Han was among dozens of South Korean community members to take part in the event.
“It is probably the only opportunity for the North and South people to meet freely in Australia. And this is where the reunification can start, from the people, with understandings and without any prejudice from each other.”
And while reunification might be a distant dream, Bronwen Dalton says any effort to promote friendship is significant.
“It is crucial these people to people connections are made because that is the foundation for a new era of peace on the Korean peninsula.”
Koreans from North and South, singing together in hope.
