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  [The Dawn of Modern Korea] (350) Stateless in Sakhalin


By Andrei Lankov

There are about half a million Koreans living in the countries of the former USSR, and about 10 percent of them are Sakhalin Koreans whose history and current situation make them very different from the rest of this community. While most Russian Koreans are descendants of families who moved to Russian in the late 19th century, the majority of Sakhalin Koreans came to the island in the 1930s, when its southern half was a part of the Japanese empire. In 1945 the southern part of Sakhalin was transferred to the USSR, and local Japanese were deported back to Japan. But the Koreans stayed there because they came from southern provinces of Korea they simply could not be sent to the Republic of Korea because it had no relations with the Soviet Union in those days. Later, in the late 1940s, some Koreans from North Korean also came to Sakhalin to work in the local fishing industry. Most of them returned to the North, but some stayed on the island.

This created a rather unusual situation. Most Sakhalin Koreans lost their Japanese citizenship in 1945, but they did not receive anything in exchange. For a few decades they remained stateless. Initially, many of them hoped that they would return home, but by the mid-1950s it became clear that they would be stuck on the island for a long time.

In the late 1950s, relations between the USSR and the DPRK (North Korea) began to deteriorate. The increasingly nationalistic and politically independent North Korea was losing its fear of Soviet wrath. This soon was felt in Sakhalin, where local Koreans found themselves subjected to growing pressures from Pyongyang. North Korea insisted that all Koreans in Sakhalin should be treated as citizens of the DPRK. This policy was especially active after 1958, influenced by the opening of a North Korean consulate in Nakhodka near Vladivostok (Vladivostok in those days was a closed city where foreigners could not reside). Obviously, the Pyongyang diplomats were encouraged by North Korea's recent success in Japan where the local Koreans, also overwhelmingly natives of southern provinces, largely accepted North Korean citizenship.

As one would expect, the North Korean officials even launched a local variety of 'Kim Il-sung's study groups' where DPRK citizens were expected to spend a few hours per week studying North Korean propaganda material, with its usual deification of the leader generously peppered with nationalism. However, while this system worked in 'reactionary Japan', it did not pass muster in the USSR where the authorities believed that indoctrination of their population would be better left to them. They began to create obstacles for the study groups. This, combined with a decisive lack of enthusiasm on behalf of the local Koreans, eventually undermined the entire scheme.

South Korean publications often insist Sakhalin Koreans resisted the pressure of the Soviet authorities who required them to accept Soviet citizenship. Allegedly, they did it because of their nationalist zeal, despite all the carrots and sticks proffered by those cunning Russians.

Well, perhaps, it is what some people do tell visiting South Korean journalists nowadays - after all, we often tell our interlocutors what they want to hear. However, from what I know, most Koreans did not choose to remain stateless: statelessness was forced on them. They would have been quite happy to accept Soviet citizenship, but until around 1970 this was difficult. In the first years of Soviet rule authorities indeed expected the Sakhalin Koreans to accept Soviet citizenship, but from around 1958 (if not earlier) Koreans began to face serious obstacles if they wished to do so. Actually, they did not reject Soviet citizenship, but were prevented from getting it. Only in the early 1970s did the Soviet authorities once again begin to allow local Koreans to hold Soviet citizenship.

Probably, this Soviet policy was a reflection of North Korean diplomatic pressure, but it also may be an indicator of the unease the authorities felt about these people whose loyalties and affiliations were doubtful. The Sakhalin Koreans were seen as suspicious and met manifold restrictions, both declared openly and enforced secretly. Those who had no citizenship, had to apply for permission to leave the island every time they wanted to go elsewhere, even if only for a few days. Their cars had foreigners' registration plates, and for all practical purposes they had no chance of forging a career in most areas.

Their situation was not unlike that of Koreans in Japan, but with two major differences. First, Sakhalin Koreans had no powerful organization protect their interests as the Chongryon did in Japan. Such a body would not be tolerated in the USSR, even during the mild and liberal political climate of the 1960s and 1970s. On the other hand, the pervasive official discrimination was not augmented by discrimination on a popular level. Koreans generally got on well with their non-Korean neighbors, and were respected for their hard work.

The fate of Sakhalin Koreans has always attracted much attention in the South where many of them still have relatives. In this regard they are different from other ex-Soviet Koreans whose contacts with Korea were severed more than a century ago, and who have no contacts with their families in Korea. This situation made possible a partial repatriation of the Sakhalin Koreans that began in the 1990s. But that is another story¡¦

01-05-2006 16:46


 
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