Baseball helps North Korean defectors' children heal from trauma

Players and coaching staff of the baseball team, the Challengers, pose at a baseball park in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with North Korean defectors and their assimilation into South Korea―ED.

Teens develop social skills through team sport, learn how to adapt to South Korea

By Kang Hyun-kyung

"Catching a ball is like eating food. You need to get something in your mouth and then chew it until you swallow. Likewise, you need to know how to catch a ball in your glove first before you throw it."

Park Yoon-soo, the head coach of the baseball team, the Challengers, uses the food analogy as he teaches Choi Ha-eun, a 12th grader at Yeomyung School in Seoul, about ball catching at a baseball park off Anyangcheon River in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31.

He tries to help his student understand what baseball is by teaching her patiently.

After missing the ball several times, Choi finally mastered how to catch a ball in her glove.

The head coach grins at her, revealing his satisfaction.

"All right! Hold it tight in your glove so that it cannot escape from it," he said.

Like 10 other players of the Challengers, Choi goes to the riverside baseball park every Friday for two hours of training to learn the basics of baseball, such as throwing, catching and running.

On the other side of the ballpark, Manager Park Jin-woo demonstrates how to pitch before a group of students.

The atmosphere of the training is far from being competitive or tense.

Contrary to the coaching staff of elite baseball teams who are strict and focus on training their players to become aggressive and goal-oriented, the manager and head coach of the Challengers are rather easy-going and explain baseball without using technical jargon.

Unlike elite baseball teams aiming to win championships, the Yeomyung School's baseball team prioritizes helping its teen members learn to value the community and to be appreciated by the community.

The non-competitive, interactive atmosphere of this baseball team is closely related to the identity of the school: its students are the second generation of North Korean defectors and the team was created to help them assimilate into South Korean society.

Manager Park Jin-woo, right, teaches his student to pitch at a ballpark in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

The Challengers are ethnically diverse.

Park, the manager, is a South Korean who played baseball as an athlete for many years before he joined the Challengers.

Shimizu Kenta, a playing coach, comes from Japan. He played baseball in Japan when he was a high school student. Now a doctoral student at the Korea University Graduate School of Sociology, Shimizu has been working with the baseball team for three years as a coach and a catcher to pass his know-how on to his students.

The students of Yeomyung School were born in either North Korea or China and spent their early years in their respective home countries before arriving in South Korea.

In the team, baseball bridges the cultures of the two Koreas, China and Japan.

Choi, who was born to a North Korean mother and a Chinese father and raised in China, did not speak a word of Korean at all when she came to the South in 2014. After years of language training, she now speaks Korean fluently.

"It's fun to play baseball," she said. "I'm stressed out in the classroom as I need to work hard for to prepare for college. I feel that baseball helped me relieve stress."

Choi Ha-eun, a 12th-grader at Yeomyung School, throws a pitch at a ballpark in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

About 80 to 90 percent of Yeomyung School students were born in China.

Like Choi, their mothers are North Korean defectors who risked their lives to cross the border into China and met their husbands there. In China, their mothers lived in constant fear of being caught and deported back to the North. China does not recognize North Korean defectors as refugees. Their vulnerable legal statuses caused them to fall victim to various human rights violations, including human trafficking.

The remaining 10 to 20 percent of the students are those born in North Korea. They arrived in South Korea with their parents or alone after perilous journeys escaping the totalitarian state.

Kim Hyuk, an 11th grader and third baseman of the Challengers, came to the South alone when he was only 13. His mother, who already had arrived in South Korea years before her son's arrival, financed his journey to the South. She hired a broker to take her son living in the North to the South.

"I like baseball because through this sport, I was able to make lots of friends as we play together, sweat together and have fun," he said.

Kim Hyuk, a third baseman of the Challengers, poses for a photo at a ballpark in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

Surveys show that many North Korean defectors and their children are grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as they have gone through various hurtful and traumatic experiences during and after border crossings. While escaping from North Korea, not only did they risk their own lives, they also sacrificed their ties with family members, relatives and friends.

Choi Yeon-jeong, a counselor at the school, said baseball helps students overcome these traumatic experiences.

"Our students, particularly those who were from the North, have physical symptoms, such as muscle tension, because of the traumatic experiences they had gone through while escaping from the North," she said. "We encourage them to exercise, start physical activities, or try to relax to ease muscle tension. Baseball is a team sport. It not only helps students develop social and interpersonal skills but also helps them become psychologically stable."

Baseball also helps the teens assimilate better into South Korean society.

Park explained that the baseball team, created in 2019, aims to help the children of the North Korean defectors adjust to South Korean society and enhance social cohesion among the community of defectors.

"The Challengers are not an elite baseball team and we don't compete in national championships. But our players play the game with other non-elite teams or university baseball teams to improve their skills and performance," he said.

Baseball is not a popular sport in China. In North Korea, there are no baseball teams, not to mention professional baseball clubs.

"Some of our students' first reaction to the sport is like 'I've never seen anything like this.' But they like the idea of playing baseball outdoors," said Park.

Playing coach Shimizu Kenta of the Challengers baseball team poses for a photo at a ballpark in Seoul's western district of Yangcheon on March 31. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

Japanese coach Shimizu said his students learn how to get along with others through the team sport.

"Most of the students here play baseball for fun and few students seek careers as athletes," he said. "I've been working with the students for three years now and some graduates continue to play in friendly matches against college teams or other baseball clubs."

Shimizu joined the Challengers in December 2020 after he contacted the club and expressed his willingness to share his years of experience as a baseball player during high school in Japan.

His experience with the baseball team helped him gain a deeper understanding of North Korean defectors.

He is a Ph.D. student in sociology who specializes in North Korean defectors' adaptation into South Korean society. He observes the students and tries to figure out how baseball helps them overcome the challenges stemming from cultural differences.

His interest in North Korean defectors began years ago when he was a college student in Hiroshima majoring in International Studies.

Shimizu said he watched a YouTube video featuring a North Korean defector's speech about human rights violations in the North.

"In Japan, few people know about North Korean defectors, partly because Japanese are not interested in the issue," he said.

He added that the YouTube video inspired him to keep doing research about North Korean defectors in South Korea.