North Korea Research Group

On April 2, after months of gathering and analyzing data, the three subunits of the North Korea Research Group met at the Munk Centre for International Studies to share our findings and discuss further research endeavors.  Over the course of two hours each group outlined some of the successes and obstacles encountered during the research process, and exchanged ideas on how to improve and expand the three projects.

NKRG President Sang Ik Song and analyst Hye-In Chung were first to present their research on some of the issues facing North Korean refugee claimants in Canada. Inspired by the paucity of verifiable information about how many such refugees enter Canada per year and the varied legal, social and economic challenges they face, the team contacted a diverse range of individuals and organizations, including five Toronto-based lawyers, federal and provincial agencies concerned with immigration and statistics, and a number of shelters and initial settlement organizations (including Korean churches and human rights groups).

To a large extent the group’s research benefited from strong community support and a genuine willingness to help.  However, while all of those contacted seemed enthusiastic about the project willing to help with this research, the lack of one coherent institutional or systematic means of keeping track of North Korean refugees in Canada ultimately meant that much of the information collected by the NKRG remains somewhat fragmentary.  Nonetheless, Sang Ik and Hye-In were able to compile a number of cross-national statistics and make several key findings about the complexities faced by these refugees in the Greater Toronto Area.  For example, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and comparable bodies in other states, fourteen North Korean defectors were granted refugee status in Canada in 2008, compared to 37 in the United States in the same year.  Other statistics from Great Britain, Norway, Belgium and South Korea were also presented.

Sang Ik and Hye-In also discussed some of the social, legal and economic difficulties faced by North Korean refugees as they adjust to life in Canadian society, although much of the information is anecdotal.  These issues will form the basis of further research which the NKRG hopes to continue next year.

The second presentation of the afternoon focused on an analysis of how North Korea is represented in Canadian print media.  NKRG Vice President and team leader Elliot Storm outlined the basic research design employed by the group, after which analysts Conrad Lochovsky, Ilham Alam and Catherine Lam presented their findings (member Yeji Kim was absent).  Because North Korea is so often depicted as an exceptional and mysterious regime, the group decided to examine exactly what sorts of North Korean issues were covered by the Globe and Mail and National Post from 2000 to 2005.  A total of 273 articles were compiled by the analysts, who then coded them according to the following subjects: domestic political and economic issues, nuclear and military issues, culture, relations with South Korea, relations with Canada, foreign affairs excluding South Korea and Canada, human rights, and miscellany/other.  Opinion pieces and editorials were also flagged so as to provide some indication of objective versus subjective articles, and the presence of evaluative language such as ‘hermit kingdom,’ ‘rogue regime,’ and ‘Stalinist’ was also noted.

The statistical analysis yielded a number of interesting results.  Unsurprisingly, both the Globe and Post devoted a disproportionate amount of their coverage to foreign policy and nuclear issues (approximately half of all relevant articles), including the Six Party Talks and weapons capabilities.  However, the Globe and Mail contained twice as many topical editorials and opinion pieces as the National Post (20%) over the five year period in question. Five percent of the Globe articles and seven percent of the Post articles paper focused on North-South relations, while the former examined DPRK-Canada relations six percent of the time compared to the Post’s seven percent – a marginal difference.  A more striking discrepancy is evident in the human rights category: the Post devoted almost twice as much coverage to the issue than the Globe, at 14.8% and 7.6% respectively.

As analysts complete their reports and synthesize the project’s overall findings, there is discussion of expanding the project to make it cross-national or to incorporate regional rather than national Canadian newspapers.

Finally, leader Christopher LaRoche and his team of Kathleen Harrington and Alan Ho updated the group on NKRG’s initial project, a detailed compilation of North American interest groups that are in some way involved with North Korean issues.  The groups are classified according to three tiers: those exclusively concerned with North Korea, those that make the DPRK a significant but not primary part of their focus, and those that are minimally engaged in anything specific to North Korea.  As more detailed information continues to be collected, the group intends to create an online searchable database that is accessible to students and the general public alike.

Final reports, along with last years material, will be edited and available on our website in time.

Event Photos

(Photographed by Michael Motala)