The recent Catholic Times in its North South Reconciliation Column has an article on a village in England where the North and South Koreans are speaking to each other.
The author Lee Hyang-gyu, Theodora, is a principal of the Hankyoreh School in London. She has written a number of books and compiled A Missionary Journey, a biography of Father Gerald Hammond a Maryknoll Missioner in Korea who has spent over 60 years in the country.
The parents and teachers of the London Hankyoreh School, have all left their hometowns in Korea. She lists the different provinces from which they came. Most of the children were born in England and can speak Korean but not very well so every Saturday they study Korean at the Hankyoreh School in London.
The London Hankyoreh School was established in 2016, by her North Korean parents who settled in the UK as refugees. Her father was from Chongjin and took the lead, her mother was from Pyongyang and became the principal. Theodora became the principal in 2021, she is from Seoul. They now have about 90 students. She doesn't know exactly where the parents are from because she never asked them, but would say they are half South Korean and half North Korean.
This school is very special. She has occasionally seen a small number of North Korean defectors attend gatherings made by South Koreans in both Korea and England, but this is the first time she has seen a space where South Koreans join a place created by North Korean defectors, where one side does not overwhelm the other and are able to create something together.
The reason this is possible is that this place is outside the divided Korean Peninsula, and there are about 1,000 North Korean defectors living in this town called New Malden, located on the outskirts of London. Both South Koreans and North Koreans are a small minority among immigrants in the mainstream British society.
The parents both have the same desire to teach their children the Korean language and the culture of the Korean people. The fact that British society basically respects cultural diversity and has laws that prohibit discrimination, such as the Equality Act, makes it easy for North and South Koreans to form a community.
On the Korean Peninsula, we still have a long way to go for ordinary citizens of South and North Korea to meet each other freely. The few North Korean defectors living in South Korea are intimidated in their activities, but the setting in England is different. Perhaps, it may help us imagine life on the Korean Peninsula, where the division has been lifted, some time in the future.
The important thing in living together is an equal relationship and respect. Constant contact and exchange rounds off the sharp edges that have appeared in relating with each other over the years. She hopes they will begin talking to one another.
