In all he presents the situation as it is for minorities in Korea but does not suggest any ways to solve these problems.

Regarding the plight of North Korean ‘defectors’ I cannot see how it is surprising that they get discriminated against (however wrong it might be) given that the two countries are technically still at war. Distrust and hate towards your enemies is a basic survival mechanism.

Illegal workers are discriminated precisely because they make little or no attempt to get the help they require. And they are unlikely to to do so because they will get deported. So how do you help someone who constantly evades you? Seems the real problem is how are they getting in and who are they working for? An immigration/policing matter requiring a firmer rather than softer hand.

Foreign brides? Why should mainstream Korean society bend over backwards to culturally accomodate them? Pak No Ja simply explained the experience of every person in the whole developed world – we are forced to learn at public schools where governement-mandated content is taught in government-mandated ways. There are just as many arguments that can be made by people of various religious,ethnic and social persuasions that they have been ‘forced’ to assimilate into ‘pupular mainstream culture’. Do I agree with this myself? No, but what are we gonna do about it. What government is gonna relinquish the a bility to indoctrinate the young towards being the ‘ideal citizen’? Not many I assume. Once you decouple education from the state however you start to see that there is really no other place that Pak No Ja showed these people were discriminated against in which they weren’t freely participating. None of the ‘Korean-Centred’ cultural activities he mentioned were forced upon these people except by their own free will. Of course maybe societies values and preferences go against these people but that’s what the Mob does – what the mob wants, right? People are usually able to find their niche.

So in general, I think Pak No Ja presented the ‘plights’ of some minorities however failed to show how their situations can or should be improved – if at all. We have to remember that Korea is a 3,000 year old society which is a little different to the immigrant societies of USA, NZ or Australia. In the case of Korea, there is a much stronger argument for the maintenance of the existing culture as a part of national pride, identity and significance that in some cases means overriding the urge to appease any and every minority culture that comes into the mix.

Again, I don’t wanna sound to harsh because I am only trying to speak to the issues rather than the people, ok?