Tuesday, October 3, 2006
6:00 PM -6:30 PM ♦ Registration and Reception
6:30 PM-8:00 PM ♦ Presentation and Q&A 

The past five years has seen a steady increase in the number of North Korean defectors living in South Korea. With a population of over 8,000, this growing minority group faces numerous challenges on a daily basis, from difficulty finding employment and discrimination in the workplace, to cultural tensions inherent in adjusting to a new society. Upon arrival in their new country, North Koreans often expect to assimilate with little difficulty, speaking the same language and sharing cultural and historical ties with their new countrymen. But the reality of living in a modern, capitalist society far different from the one they left is often difficult to face, let alone adjust to.

By shadowing two North Korean refugees for a year, Laura Pohl was given a candid look into their daily lives, and their struggle as outsiders in a country that is both familiar and strange simultaneously. The photographs she has taken raise important questions regarding the refugees' plight, and bring to fore the sensitive issue of how to socially integrate a large group of North Koreans who have grown apart, culturally and even linguistically, from their South Korean counterparts. Why did they leave North Korea? How did they get to South Korea? And what does the future hold for them?

About the speaker

Laura Elizabeth Pohl is a photojournalist who recently spent a year as a Fulbright scholar in South Korea, where she photographed the daily lives of former North Koreans now residing in South Korea. In addition to the Fulbright grant, she also received funding for this project from the Alexia Foundation and the Duffy Fund. Pohl first became interested in the plight of North Koreans while working as a Dow Jones Newswires reporter in Seoul from 2001 to 2003. She received a BA in communication and social change from American University and will receive a masters in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia later this year.