Ukraine to Korea
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over 800 ethnically-Korean refugees fled Ukraine for Koryo Village in South Korea’s Gwangju province following Russia’s invasion. Many Koryoin are women and children who escaped Ukraine when male family members were drafted. Some have secured legal status and jobs, while others await document processing. They are descendants of Koreans who fled to the Soviet Union during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Journalist So Jeong Lee visits the village, observing new arrivals and a school where children learn Korean. But recent elections have led to new government policies which will impact the Koryoin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I asked my mother about family history but she shouted at me saying that it's no |
| 0:07.5 | use talking about what happened in the past. Not only my parents but all Corrio people were afraid and never mentioned their history. |
| 0:15.6 | I'm standing in a cafe in Guangzhou province about 270 kilometers from Seoul. |
| 0:27.0 | The people around me look Korean, but the language I'm hearing is Russian. |
| 0:34.0 | Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:38.0 | I'm Sojali and I've come to Korea Village |
| 0:42.0 | to meet the Ukrainian refugees who live here. |
| 0:46.1 | This is home to the Korean families of refugees from the war in Ukraine. |
| 0:58.0 | Their ancestors were Koreans who emigrated over a hundred years ago to what is now Russia and Ukraine. They became known as the Koryo people. |
| 1:05.0 | My name is Anna. I came from Ukraine. I'm 12 years old. |
| 1:10.0 | I can only speak in Russia. |
| 1:12.0 | Anna speaks Russian, not Ukrainian. |
| 1:15.0 | Russian has long been the safest language for this Korean migrants. |
| 1:20.0 | We'll find out why later. |
| 1:23.6 | Anna goes to the local Korean school. |
| 1:26.0 | She arrived two years ago. |
| 1:27.8 | What does she think of this new country? |
| 1:30.3 | I didn't like it at first. I wanted to go home because I didn't have any friends. I didn't |
| 1:37.2 | understand anything. I didn't want to go to school at all because I came from Ukraine, |
| 1:42.3 | but then I started to like it. The bad |
| 1:44.9 | thing is that I don't understand all the terms in school so I'm not good at |
| 1:48.9 | studying. Anna is learning Korean from scratch. She came here from Ukraine with her parents and |
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