Interview of a defector on LGBT social situation
[[File:NK News article about LGBT.png|thumb|774x774px|A screenshot of the interview about LGBT issues in DPRK appearing in NK News.]]
'''''Note:''' There are some apparent editorial comments/questions in parentheses in the original article, and they are preserved here in translation. Additionally, the Korean language often uses gender-neutral pronouns, as well as leaving pronouns out of sentences, although gendered forms of pronouns do exist and may be used. Therefore, the use of pronouns below may be ambiguous or inconsistent with English language conventions.''
In a 2015 Korean-language article titled "Are there gays in North Korea? I asked a North Korean!"<ref name=":17">NK News. 2015-02-08. [https://kr.nknews.org/%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C%EC%97%90%EB%8F%84-%EA%B2%8C%EC%9D%B4%EA%B0%80-%EC%9E%88%EB%82%98%EC%9A%94-%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C-%EC%82%AC%EB%9E%8C%EC%97%90%EA%B2%8C-%EB%AC%BC%EC%96%B4%EB%B4%A4%EC%8A%B5%EB%8B%88/ "북한에도 게이가 있나요? 북한 사람에게 물어봤습니다!"] ("Are there gays in North Korea? I asked a North Korean!") NK News. [https://kr.nknews.org/%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C%EC%97%90%EB%8F%84-%EA%B2%8C%EC%9D%B4%EA%B0%80-%EC%9E%88%EB%82%98%EC%9A%94-%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C-%EC%82%AC%EB%9E%8C%EC%97%90%EA%B2%8C-%EB%AC%BC%EC%96%B4%EB%B4%A4%EC%8A%B5%EB%8B%88/ URL]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220803063529/https://kr.nknews.org/%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C%EC%97%90%EB%8F%84-%EA%B2%8C%EC%9D%B4%EA%B0%80-%EC%9E%88%EB%82%98%EC%9A%94-%EB%B6%81%ED%95%9C-%EC%82%AC%EB%9E%8C%EC%97%90%EA%B2%8C-%EB%AC%BC%EC%96%B4%EB%B4%A4%EC%8A%B5%EB%8B%88/ Archive URL]. [https://archive.md/sOwSw Archived English Version].</ref> the following descriptions are given, identified in the article as being provided by Lee Je-sun (이제선), their age stated as "late 20s" and who defected in 2011.Commenting on their own attitude toward apparently LGBT individuals:<blockquote>Actually, it was in a South Korean school, while listening to a lecture about women's studies, that I learned about LGBT, since in North Korea I never heard anything about the concept of lesbians or gays. While I was listening to that lecture, I started to piece together [...] things I had experienced in North Korea. When I lived in North Korea, I didn't really think anything about them other than thinking of them as unusual people with unusual tastes. That's because whatever someone's sexual orientation may be, if they like people, we can become friends without any issue. People around would talk behind their back, but they were busy earning a living, so it was just the chatter of older ladies in their free time, and it wasn't contempt or exclusion. [...] I believe that understanding, consideration, and social concern for sexual minorities are necessary. </blockquote>On the topic of male homosexuality, the interviewee stated:<blockquote>I have not personally seen gays directly. I've only heard that that kind of behavior comes up a lot in the military, according to what adults said. [...] However, as this could just be an alternative way of relieving the desire for women, it's a bit difficult to conclude that it's gay (homosexuality).</blockquote>Describing an apparently gender non-conforming individual, the interviewee said:<blockquote>When I was younger, I once went on a mobilization out to a rural farming village. In North Korea, each year in autumn the first through third-year high school students are sent out to a farming village for a month in order to provide support. At that time, in a very remote country village, I saw an unusual person.
They definitely looked like a man, but they wore heavy makeup, and every day they would sit on the stepping stones by the stream. I was quite curious, so I asked the townspeople, and they said that the person was a man but they kept on wearing women's clothing and putting on makeup, so their parents--who were in the city--sent them to go live in the village. I would secretly look at this person with my friends. I found them odd but also fascinating.</blockquote>Regarding lesbian relationships, the interviewee stated:<blockquote>I actually saw a lot of lesbians, and even hung out with them. I don't know if it's because I'm a woman, but there were a number of lesbians around. The majority of the lesbians liked wearing mens' clothing. They also would have their hair in a short, sporty style and wear mens' clothing, and would have masculine behaviors. They all liked dating women. According to what adults would say, if a women got involved with one of them, it would be difficult to break up, because it's better than being with a man. They themselves would like it, but the people around them wouldn't. There is also one's social image, and especially the sentiment that one's parents would never give permission.</blockquote>Regarding the disapproving response of parents to lesbian couples, and the attitude of the police:<blockquote>People naturally like talking behind others' backs, don't they? The people around them (the lesbian couple) would guess about things they weren't even doing, which would spread rumors. The lesbian's parents had already given up (?) their daughter, so it didn't matter, but the heterosexual girl's parents' stance was different.
In order to find some way to get their daughter out of it, they even made a report to the police and hit her. However, even though the police went to get the lesbian, there was no law for punishing her. At most, the police could only scold her for public indecency, and as it would also be difficult for them to hold her accountable for a serious offense, they had her write a pledge to not wear men's' clothes again. The important thing is that even though people would laugh or talk about the lesbians, people didn't despise or exclude them.</blockquote>Regarding an apparently gender non-conforming and/or possibly intersex and/or bisexual individual, the interviewee said:<blockquote>There was one unusual person living the next neighborhood over. They were neither a woman nor a man. Thanks to this, the people in that neighborhood were never bored. I didn't know whether I should call them ajimi (big sister?) or uncle, to the point that I would even hesitate because I couldn't distinguish. That person even had a husband and a pair of kids. Even so, they were having an affair with a woman so there was always gossip about them.
This person was masculine to the extent that on first glance, anyone would think they were a man. They had a fuller chest than anyone else, but people took this person to be a man. In North Korea, women can't ride bikes but she alone could ride one.
This was because even the traffic police couldn't distinguish their gender. While they were trying to determine whether they were a woman or a man, they would already have passed by. They also had a good personality and a kind heart, so I liked them a lot. [...]
Whenever I went to my friend's house, they always came there, and they would do all of the house chores that a man does. Of course they maintained a good relationship with their husband and took care of their kids and financial parts, they were responsible for all of these things. Something people were very curious about regarding this person was actually, more so than about them being bisexual, that they earned money well and maintained the house well, maybe they were jealous of her diligence. </blockquote>The interviewee addresses sexual reassignment surgery procedures, speaking on both intersex-related and gender-affirming reassignment surgery:<blockquote>In regards to sex reassignment, rather than by individual inclination, it is handled by the government. For example I have heard that if someone is born and they physically don't have male or female genitalia, in the hospital where they are born, after a consultation is done with their parents, they will perform a sex reassignment surgery. However, I haven't experienced this personally and neither has anyone I know, so this is just hearsay.
I can confidently say that it is completely impossible in North Korea to change sex based on one's own sexual orientation, regardless of physiological issues. That's because medical facilities aren't developed enough, and there aren't wealthy people to pay the huge expenses in order to support their sexual orientation.<ref name=":17" /></blockquote>
