It has already been 30 years since thousands of North Korean defectors came to South Korea after North Korean great famine, known as Arduous March in the 1990s. However, they are still experiencing difficulties settling into South Korean society. In fact, according to the Centre for North Korean Human Rights report, one out of four North Korean defectors have thought about relocating to countries other than South Korea. Surprisingly, 18.8% of them even thought about returning to North Korea due to difficulties adapting to South Korea. |
Economic self-sufficiency is one of the significant factors that can decide North Korean defectors settle stably. Yet, North Korean defectors earn low wages or do not even have job opportunities. These lead to social isolation and emotional and psychological difficulties for North Korean defectors, making it more difficult for them to settle in South Korean society. |
Kang Ji-Hyun, CEO of iStory, which supports North Korean defectors by putting stories into fashion, became interested in fashion design after seeing foreigners wearing ripped jeans in North Korea. After coming to South Korea, she began studying fashion design. |
CEO of iStory, Kang Ji-Hyun |
Kang Ji-Hyun came to see how North Korean defectors are discriminated against in South Korea. They are socially discriminated against because they do not know South Korean culture and speak differently. Kang Ji-Hyun thought about how can North Korean defectors live happily in South Korea. Oneday, she had a chance to meet a North Korean defector in person. It made her think that how about I turn their story into fashion and spread it to South Korea. |
North Korean Defectors' Story Design Patches |
iStory is a company that puts the stories of North Korean defectors into fashion, breaking prejudice against them and supporting their economic self-reliance. As the saying goes, The most personal is the most beautiful, iStory meets and interviews North Korean defectors and turns their stories into a drawing. The drawings are used for designing clothes so that people can feel the with all the five senses. In addition, QR codes are attached to all clothes. They allow people to see the meaning of the pictures and the unique life stories in detail. iStory sells clothes in online and offline stores. |
iStory donates 10% of the proceeds to North Korean defectors. Furthermore, iStory sold NFT* art created with stories of North Korean defectors and donated all proceeds to young North Korean defector entrepreneurs. They used the donation to expand their sales channels and create live commerce content. |
*What is NFT? NFT is a non-fungible token (Non-Fungible Token), which is very easy to duplicate and is a technology that gives a unique value to digital content to make it distinctive. |
The goal of iStory is to share the stories of 33,000 North Korean defectors through various ways so that prejudice against North Korean defectors disappears. We will be able to change how people think about North Korean defectors by letting South Korean realize that they are no different from North Korean defectors. |
As prejudice does not disappear overnight, continuous efforts are needed to improve the awareness of North Korean defectors. To this end, iStory plans to produce a new product, a solid perfume containing the stories of North Korean defectors through The Bridge Impact Funding. iStory will support entrepreneurs from North Korean defectors with a portion of the proceeds from sales of solid perfume. Also, iStory will produce psychological care kits for North Korean defectors to create a virtuous cycle of funds. |
“I think a successful business model should come among North Korean defectors. Through this, the voices of North Korean defectors can be heard. When the employment of North Korean defectors increases and economic independence becomes possible, we will be able to solve the problems that North Korean defectors currently experience.” |
Please make an impact donation so that iStory can spread the stories of North Korean defectors to break social prejudice! |
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