North Koreans Face Culture Shock Once in Free South

A North Korean defector activist sits with bags of bottles containing rice, money, and USB sticks, on Ganghwa island, west of Seoul, on May 1, 2018. North Korean defectors send the supplies floating towards their homeland. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

SEOUL—Despite a shared history on the Korean Peninsula spanning 5,000 years, for North Koreans defecting to the South, life in the free and open world comes with its own surprises.

“I can’t understand it when South Koreans say ‘blah blah,'” Park Ja Yoo (a pseudonym), a defector from North Korea, said, referring to South Koreans’ frequent use of English words.