Torture Experiences and Mental Health Problems among Refugees: The Impact of Repatriation to North Korea on Mental Disorders

ABSTRACT

Psychological distress is prevalent among North Korean refugees, but their associations with forced repatriation to North Korea have not been empirically investigated. In this study, we defined forced repatriation as a constellation of torture experiences and investigated whether forced repatriation is associated with various clusters of psychological symptoms among North Korean refugees. Six hundred thirty-two North Korean refugees participated in this study. Significant differences in the psychological symptoms of refugees with and without the experience of forced repatriation were found. As a result of past exposure to torture, refugees who experienced forced repatriation reported more severe psychological symptoms than their counterparts without such experience. The findings suggest that premigration trauma shares differential associations with different clusters of psychological symptoms.

KEYWORDS:

• Torture experience
• forced repatriation
• psychological symptoms
• North Korean refugees

Notes

¹ The definition of torture used in prior studies adopted from the Declaration of Tokyo (1975) of the World Medical Association (WMA). It defines torture as follows: Torture is …the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons, acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason (Weinstein et al., 113). This study also adopted the definition of the WMA to understand torture among the North Korean refugees. Detailed information regarding the definition of the torture of this study described in the section of Methods.

² Hanawon is a South Korean government-funded facility physically located in South Korea.

³ Although authors did face-to-face interview, qualitative data was not collected. It is used only for the assurance of validity and reliability of quantitative data due to the unique circumstances of research participants.

⁴ Some of North Korean refugees may have their family members or close friends who immigrated into South Korea earlier and reside in South Korea at the time when they enter into South Korea.