It’s not quite clear from this article how many of the students in question were born in North Korea, rather than being born in South Korea to refugee parents, but either way the group is doing very poorly in school. This is another confirmation of the fact that Korean kids with foreign parents tend to have bad educational outcomes.

The number of North Korean refugee teenagers studying in elementary, middle, and high schools across the country has increased significantly compared to last year.

On the 24th Seoul National University professor of education Mun Yong-rin announced the results of his study, according to which the number of such teens had risen 41% over last year to a total of 966 students as of April 1st.

Elementary schoolers increased 51.2%, middle schools 29.8%, and high schoolers 18.9%.

73% were in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, or Incheon.

But because the teens have differences of culture, psychological injuries, and a fundamental education gap, their drap-out rate is significantly greater than other teens, the study found.

Last April 3.5% of elementary students, 12.9% of middle school students, and 28.1% of high school students dropped out, compared to 0.8% in middle school and 1.8% in high school for other students.

The number of children from cross-cultural (international) marriages increased 39% to 18,769, more than twice the figure of 7,998 from two years ago.

Professor Mun said that teenagers from North Korea or international marriages are often called “migrant teenagers” and, “because they miss out on educational opportunities or are ostracized, they can’t fit in to society very well and don’t know how to succeed.”

On the 25th professor Mun will attend the “International Symposium for the Establishment of Policy on Migrant Teenagers”, to be held at the LG Convention Center at Ehwa Women’s University with the 보건복지가족부와 무지개청소년센터, and will present his findings as “The Condition and Issues of Teenagers from International Marriages in Korea”.

The symposium will be attended by Korean experts and government officials as well as by Kate Willis of Australia’s immigration bureau and authorities from Norway, Germany, and Taiwan and will examine successful educational policies.