Filipina bride, ex-NK defector named to Dong-A top 100 list

One woman left her home country in 1995 for South Korea and the other fled a Stalinist state in 2002 to do the same. The former was called a “dark-skinned Filipina bride” and the latter “a woman from North Korea” due to her North Korean accent.

How time flies. This year marks the 18th year for Rep. Jasmine Lee and the 11th for Kim Ji-eun in Korea. They have grown famous enough that many South Koreans recognize them by their names.

Lee, 36, of the ruling Saenuri Party is the first naturalized citizen to enter the National Assembly. Kim, director of Jin Herb Clinic, is the first doctor of Oriental medicine to receive doctorates from both South and North Korea. Both women were selected by The Dong-A Ilbo to its list of 100 South Koreans expected to bring honor to the country over the next 10 years.

The list was compiled to mark Dong-A`s 93rd anniversary. The recommendation committee said both women will play key roles in an era when 1.3 million people from multicultural families and 25,000 North Korean defectors live in South Korea.

Lee and Kim began life in South Korea as minorities. They held each other’s hand when they met at Dong-A Media Center in downtown Seoul Monday.

The lawmaker has lived longer in South Korea than in her native Philippines. Though she has ruled out giving private education to her children, she is no different from other mothers in the country in wanting to have her children run for class officers to get extra points. Kim was born in North Korea but now holds South Korean citizenship. “When I hear the term ‘North Korea,’ it feels like I`ve heard the word somewhere,” she said.

Both women, however, say they still feel that they are considered foreigners by South Koreans. Lee said, “After my husband died in 2010, I was shocked to hear people ask me when I would go back. I’d lived here for 15 years and my children were born here. I wanted to ask people why I should go back because I’m a Korean. I was sad but I couldn’t say anything back.”

In Kim`s case, whenever she says she got divorced in North Korea, people here would not believe it. South Koreans believe divorce is impossible in North Korea. She found herself tongue-tied when people who have never been there think they know everything. Getting divorced in North Korea is not as easy as in South Korea but it`s possible in the North as well. “I don’t know what they want to hear, but they might want me to say, ‘I ran away from the North after I was demoted in an entertainment division for the North Korean leader,’” she raised her voice, which was in a tranquil tone.