Eun Ah Cho
The University of Sydney

Received December 30, 2021; Revised version received January 30, 2022; Accepted February 10, 2022

Abstract

More than 70 percent of North Korean refugees who cross the Sino-North Korean border are women, and approximately 60 percent of them send money to family members that they left behind in North Korea. How does the North Korean refugees’ monetary remittances change the relationship with their family members? This article answers this question particularly focusing on Jero Yun’s trilogy about North Korean women: Mrs. B, A North Korean Woman (2016), Beautiful Days (2018), and Fighter (2021). By reading North Korean refugee issues as a part of dispersed families (isan’gajok) in the history of a divided Korea, the director delivers a strong message of motherhood through the North Korean women in his films. The women in the films, however, reveal how desperately they want to escape from the conventional image of “Korean mothers” who are supposed to sacrifice and devote themselves to their children. With monetary and emotional remittance to their family members, the North Korean women gradually turn over their hierarchy in the patriarchal family system and transform themselves into tearless mothers who do not apologize for their absence. By establishing their own moral boundary, these women not only cross the conception of clan-based family but bid farewell to the nation (North Korea), which is a collective of individual families.

Key Words : North Korean refugees, North Korean women, dispersed family (isan’gajok), monetary remittance, emotional remittance, motherhood, Jero Yun