Defection from North Korea to South Korea has increased dramatically, but little is known of its political consequences. Do North Korean defectors successfully adopt democratic norms, and if so, what factors aid this process? Through a novel survey of defectors, I find that national identification plays a significant role in motivating their fledgling sense of democratic obligation. Greater feelings of national unity with South Koreans lead to a stronger duty to vote and otherwise contribute to the democratic state. This effect is more powerful than that of conventional contractual factors, on which most state resettlement policies are based, and is surprising given that defectors’ nationalist socialization mostly took place under the authoritarian North. The findings suggest the need to reconsider integration approaches toward North Korean defectors and similarly placed refugees elsewhere.

中文翻译：

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适应民主：朝鲜叛逃者的身份和政治发展——勘误

从朝鲜叛逃到韩国的人数急剧增加，但对其政治后果知之甚少。脱北者是否成功地采用了民主规范？如果是，哪些因素有助于这一进程？通过对叛逃者的一项新颖调查，我发现国家认同在激发他们初出茅庐的民主义务感方面发挥着重要作用。与韩国人的民族团结感更强，会导致更有责任投票，并以其他方式为民主国家做出贡献。这种影响比大多数国家重新安置政策所依据的传统合同因素的影响更大，而且鉴于叛逃者的民族主义社会化大多发生在威权主义的北方，这令人惊讶。