A study on the mental health outcomes of North Korean male defectors: Comparing with general Korean males and searching for health policy implications

Abstract

The present study attempts to understand the features of North Korean male defectors' emotive, cognitive and behavioral responses to criminal victimizations when compared with general Korean male population, the reference group, and to explore mental health and medical policy implications from the statistical analyses. Using and analyzing merged data from Crime Victimization in Korea, 5 (2006), and A Survey on North Korean Refugees (2006), the author found that group differences do exist in the components of emotive, cognitive and behavioral responses to possible victimizations from crimes and violences. For each of emotive and cognitive responses to threat of victimizations, North Korean defectors scored significantly higher than general male population except perceived vulnerability. For behavioral responses, however, North Korean defectors scored significantly lower. These results were interpreted to provide the evidences for the need of transformations of micro- and macro-level health policies for North Korean defectors. © Korean Medical Association.