Hyunah Jo

The experience of leaving North Korea and navigating life as an undocumented person in China presents significant challenges for those seeking refuge in South Korea. This paper presents findings from an eight-month longitudinal ethnographic study with five newly arrived North Korean defector women in their first year in South Korea. We closely examine how digital technologies are intertwined with their everyday adaptation: how newcomers engage with digital systems, what frictions emerge, and how past experiences of living invisibly shape these interactions. This study contributes to the HCI community by (1) offering an empirically grounded, underrepresented account of early-stage digital resettlement among North Korean defectors; (2) conceptualizing first-time digital identity as a site of acute vulnerability shaped by past experiences and long histories of marginalization; and (3) proposing temporal, context-sensitive, self-reliance–oriented approaches to digital adaptation that supports vulnerable newcomers’ sociotechnical transition into a new society.

In a world where digital technology is omnipresent, North Korea stands as an outlier, with most citizens uninformed about its existence. This study explores the experiences of North Korean defectors as they transition to a highly digitally connected society—South Korea. Through 21 semi-structured interviews, we initially investigate the critical needs and challenges they encounter during their transitions. Then, we examine the role of digital technology as they adapt to the highly connected digital environment of South Korea. Our findings highlight that social media serves as a double-edged sword, providing the freedom to construct a desired identity while accentuating the gap between their real and ideal selves. This empirical research offers insights into how an underrepresented population navigates the digital landscape during life transitions, shedding light on the drawbacks and ways to better address their needs.