Global Health Fund Trip Report: South Korea

This summer, I returned to South Korea to work with an organization that provides medical support services to North Korean Defectors. Unlike last year, in which I participated in direct service, this year, I wanted to do something that would further increase awareness of North Korean issues and went with the intention of writing a grant or publishing a paper on North Korean issues.

When I arrived at the organization, they were busy carrying out various programs for the North Korean Defectors who utilized their services. Interestingly, the organization had received a grant to create a women’s support group, in which the women were being trained to support each other in everyday tasks (e.g. babysitting, grocery shopping, etc.), rather than having to hire sometime to help them out, or in most cases, not being able to accomplish the task. It was inspiring to see grandmothers and other older women participating in this program, in which they would also have to learn the basic English that is used in South Korea. For example, even a simple concept like “pizza” was very foreign to these women, as most of them had never saw a pizza in their life. But can you imagine trying to learn these words and items in a foreign language at the age of 50-70? Nevertheless, these women did extremely well and showed great enthusiasm in learning. (Side note: North Koreans are extremely good at memorizing, as they did not have very many electronics to remember things for them in North Korea.)

Even with all the great services and programming for North Koreans Defectors in South Korea, as well as wealth of research and knowledge, there is huge gap between what the East and West knows of North Korean issues. In fact, if you were to do a simple Medline search for the keyword North Korea, it will produce 63 publications, with a large number of them not being related to medicine. With so little data and knowledge that makes it to the West, it is inevitable that North Korea remains very mysterious and misunderstood by the West. So, my work was cut out for me: find a study or paper in Korean, translate the paper, and prepare it for publication in an English journal. Sounds easy enough and I plan to have the paper mostly finished by the end of my 11-day trip.

Step 1: Find an appropriate study or paper.

After spending a day reading several studies and papers, we finally narrowed down the options to two studies that had not been published in any journal before. We went over the background information, methods, results, etc.; however, as both studies were compiled a few years ago, it would take us another few days to find the raw data in order to analyze it.

Step 2: Networking and finding appropriate co-authors.

In the meanwhile, I met with several other students and researchers in Korea, networking on their interests on North Korean issues, as well as sharing my plans for this trip. Eventually, I traveled to Seoul National University Medical School (SNU is the top university in Korea and is recognized as one of the top universities worldwide) in order to meet with several physicians who are interested in North Korean issues and are currently helping the organization with a few projects. After discussing my plans and the study topic, one of the physicians, who had seen the data presented before, was on board to assist with the statistical analysis.

Step 3: Writing the paper

With sufficient interest in the paper and several experts on-board, I began writing the paper and working with the other co-authors to clarify everything. One day, two days, three days... the paper slowly began to take shape and it looked like I was going to have the paper finished in a few days.

Step 4: Setback

Once most of the paper had been outlined and drafted, I realized that this study may not have an associated IRB. And to my dissatisfaction, I was right. Ahh!!! Not only did this mean that this study would not be publishable, but it meant that six days of hard work had gone out the window! Well most of it, at least. In fact, I was very shocked to learn that IRBs are not standard in South Korea yet, though they are rapidly becoming more prevalent.

Step 5: Re-work project

So, in my last few days in Korea, I began reworking the study and creating a timeline to re-conduct the study. First, replicate and expand upon the current study and prepare for obtaining an IRB when I get back to the States. Second, send the appropriate IRB back to South Korea, where the organization will continue the study. Third, analyze and interpret data. Fourth, re-write the paper.

Though I was not able to accomplish what I had initially set out to do during my time in South Korea, there are several valuable things I learned on my trip:

1) There is a lot of great work being done to support North Korean Defectors in South Korea- much more than I expected before I began volunteering in South Korea.

2) There is a plethora of research in South Korea, some of which provide amazing insight into the situation of North Korean defectors. However, because every country has its different research standards, many of the studies may not be publishable in Western Journals, ultimately leading to a gap in information.

Ultimately, this trip has given me insight into the difficulties of publishing from one country to another and the possible methods of long-distance publishing. Hopefully, my second attempt at this paper will be successful, proving that international research with collaborators on two different continents is possible and opening the door to more studies in the near future.