Tags:
Journalism of Courage
As a North Korean defector on the hunt for a husband in Seoul,Choi Young-hee was unlucky in love.
Working days as a food vendor,she went on blind dates with many frogsmen more wily and Westernised than their conservative northern counterparts,perfectionists who often boorishly asked if she could set them up with her North Korean girlfriends.
Her company,South Korean Man-North Korean Woman Marriage Consulting,is a play off a proverb that says South Korea is home to good-looking men and North Korea the domain of ravishingly beautiful women.
South Korean men are charmers,full of sweet talk,says Choi,an energetic,full-figured 43-year-old. But some overdo the cheesy compliments. Yet even at their worst,she says,they make better mates than North Korean men. North Koreans are hard men of few words, she says. They dont have as much consideration for a woman.
Some South Korean men have decided they want North Korean wives,who favour more traditional values. In many cases,their parents were displaced from the North during the Korean War,and they relate more to the culture there.
More than half the nearly 15,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea are women,according to government statistics. In 2007,South Korea revised a law to enable North Korean defectors to divorce the spouses they left behind.
Choi knows plenty about North Korean menshe used to be married to one,but she left the marriage when she and her daughter defected in 2002.
Her list of eligible candidates numbers about 100 South Korean men and 370 North Korean women. Her services are free to women from the North,a gesture Choi makes out of camaraderie.
Yet even with all her success,Choi isnt sure she wants to restart the search for her own mate.
My friends tell me to find someone for myself, Choi says. But as I say to my staff,I probably shouldnt go out with clients.
