Koreans in Kamchatka

By that year, almost all of the original settlers had died out, and the remaining Koreans were second- or third-generation.

In 1946, the Soviet Union and North Korea concluded an agreement to collaborate on the development of fisheries.

By the terms of the agreement, 2,000 North Korean migrant workers would go to various parts of the Russian Far East, including Sakhalin and Kamchatka, from May to July of that year.

However, some refused, possibly due to apprehension over returning to the poverty in North Korea.

We were asked to sell "Kim Il Sung vegetables" cultivated in Kamchatka.

Following the contemptuous conducts of their parents, Russian children also made fun of us.Koreans in Kamchatka visited and associated themselves with North Korea until at latest the late 1980s.

[13] An interviewer estimated that original residents visited North Korea an average of three times.

[12] One interviewee said:[12] In the late 1980s, however, [locals] stopped making fun of us and began treating us with respect, for the reason that [South Korea], our motherland, is well off.

The 1988 Summer Olympics, which [Soviet athletes participated in], served as a turning point for them to recognize the miraculous economic situation of South Korea.