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Meiji Gakuin University professor Chong Young-hwan is a Japanese-born Korean (known as “Chosen-seki” in Japan) who was allowed to freely travel to and from South Korea until the Lee Myung-bak administration banned his entry in 2009. The Park Geun-hye continued the practice of forbidding his visit. The above photo shows him on May 4, the day of his first visit to South Korea in 12 years, during his talk in Seoul on issues such as the Chosen-seki and comfort women. (Lee Jong-keun, staff photographer)
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Chong Young-hwan was banned from entry by the Lee and Park administrations
On Apr. 27, the same day that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un crossed the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjeom, Meiji Gakuin University professor Chong Young-hwan arrived in South Korea via Incheon International Airport. “Chairman Kim Jong-un talked about ‘our lost 11 years,’ and it was deeply moving for me as someone who lost that much time to have been in Seoul for ‘April 27,’” the 38-year-old Chong, a Zainichi Korean with “Chosen-seki” (Korean domicile) nationality, told the Hankyoreh on May 4. Chong’s visit to South Korea was his first in 12 years since 2006. In 2009, the Lee Myung-bak administration refused to allow him to set foot on South Korean soil. The succeeding Park Geun-hye administration did the same. In June 2016, Chong was blocked from entering South Korea for a talk for the publication of his book “Who Is Reconciliation For?” The book included criticisms of Sejong University professor Park Yu-ha’s “Comfort Women of the Empire,” which stirred up controversy with its denial of the Japanese government’s legal responsibility to comfort women victims. It was only when the Moon Jae-in administration arrived in office last year that the way was cleared for Chong to visit. President Moon Jae-in had previously signaled a change in the administration’s attitude, pledging to “normalize home country visits for overseas Koreans of all nationalities.” After being unable to travel to South Korea for so long, Chong’s schedule of talks was jam-packed. In the week after his arrival, he went through six talks organized by the Japanese Military Comfort Woman Research Association, the Institute for Korean Historical Studies, MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, and the Seoul National University Institute of Humanities. The topics included Chosen-seki issues – which are both an area of specialization and a matter of identity for Chong – and the comfort women issue. Born in 1980 as a third-generation Chosen-seki Korean in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, Chong attended Korean schools from elementary all the way through high school. In 1947, Japan ordered Zainichi Koreans to list their nationality as “Chosen” (Korean) on official documents; since then, those who have not naturalized as Japanese or acquired South Korean citizenship have maintained Chosen-seki nationality – over 30,000 in total. South Korea’s Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act requires overseas Koreans without nationality and a South Korean passport to obtain a “travel certificate” in lieu of a passport. Chong twice visited South Korea in 2005 and 2006 after obtaining certifications from the consulate in Osaka, but was abruptly denied one in 2009. “Until that time, I saw [South Korea] as a place I shouldn’t visit, where ‘Chosen’ was seen as meaning the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and traveling to South Korea meant ‘converting,’” he recalled. “But now that I wasn’t allowed to go to South Korea, it became a place where I had to go.” Stigmatized for having visited North Korea The South Korean government took issue with Chong having graduated from a Korean school affiliated with North Korea, his 1999 visit to North Korea as part of a Korean youth league delegation affiliated with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), and his activities as an official in a Chongryon-affiliated youth organization. In Aug. 2009, he filed an administrative suit demanding that the refusal to issue him a travel certificate be overturned. His supporters argued that he should be guaranteed a choice and human rights as a “stateless” Chosen-seki who “has not chosen South Korean, North Korea, or Japanese nationality.” In the first trial, the court sided with Chong, concluding that the issuance of a travel certification “cannot be construed as harmful to the national security, order, or public welfare.” But the appellate court and Supreme Court agreed that it was lawful to deny issuance of a travel certificate in light of his visit to North Korea, among other factors. Chong experienced his own personal issues irrespective of the trial outcome, he said. “While some Chosen-seki are conscious of themselves as ‘stateless,’ my thought if someone asks me if I’m ‘South or North’ is that I’m not ‘not North Korean,’” he explained. “But if I put it that way, the only way that gets interpreted in the South Korean framework is that I must be saying I’ve ‘chosen North Korea.’” “As someone born and raised in Japan, it doesn’t come naturally for me to imagine a [Korean] ‘nation’ or to want to go to the [Korean] Peninsula or feel an affinity for it,” he added. “It takes some effort.” “The sense of a ‘nation’ is something I gained from the Korean schools, which have close ties to the North, but I don’t want to repudiate that so I can travel to the South.” Chong’s grandfather was born in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province. Chong views his right to return to his hometown and visit his home country as a separate issue of “nationhood” unconnected to his support for South or North Korea. Beyond just “South” or “North” “Given that ‘Chosen-seki’ nationality arose because of Japanese colonial role and the inability to visit my home country is the result of Korea’s division, responsibility for that lies with the divided governments of South and North, not with me as the descendant of colonial victims,” he said. If nationhood is adopted as a standard, he argues, the distinction between South and North is rendered meaningless. The question “South or North?” offers too limited a frame for understanding the reality of Chosen-seki Koreans, who have lived outside it for over seven decades. Chong’s grandfather originally adopted Chosen-seki nationality, but finally acquired South Korean citizenship in the 2000s in order to visit his hometown. Other family members also hold South Korean citizenship. With his prospects for future South Korea visits uncertain, Chong said he wanted to deliver a message. “What I want is for the Chosen-seki image not to be painted from a South Korean standpoint,” he said. “Instead, you should take things like the history of colonization, inter-Korean relations, and overseas Koreans into account and accept Chosen-seki lives as they are. You need to ask another question beyond just ‘South or North?’” By Kim Min-kyoung, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
