Koreans in Poland

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Koreans in Poland
"Koreańczycy w Polsce"
재폴란드 한인
poptime=516 South Koreans (2005),citation|url=http://www.okf.or.kr/data/status_EU.jsp|title=재외동포현황 - 유럽 (Status of overseas compatriots - Europe)|publisher=Overseas Korean Foundation|date=2005|accessdate=2008-10-05] plus at least 75 North Koreanscitation|url=http://www.hrwf.net/north_korea/nkpdf/nk_mar24_2006.pdf|title=Slaves from North Korea work in Gdańsk Shipyard|first=Mikołaj|last=Chrzan|first2=Marcin|last2=Kowalski|periodical=Gazeta Wyborcza|date=24 March, 2006|accessdate=2008-10-05]
popplace=Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot, Wrocławcitation|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-12038150_ITM|title=Restaurants for Koreans in Wroclaw|periodical=Poland News Bulletin|date=13 December, 2005|accessdate=2008-10-05]
langs=Korean
rels=No data
related=Korean diaspora

Koreans in Poland do not form a very large population. They consist of both North and South Koreans.

Pre-World War II and communist era

Poland's first Korean residents were believed to have come as staff members of the Japanese embassy in the 1930s, when Korea was a part of the Japanese Empire. One, a dentist named Yu Dong-ju, stayed behind in Poland after World War II and began teaching the Korean language to local East Asian studies students; however, he ceased teaching upon the arrival of officially-dispatched language teachers sent by the newly-established North Korean government.citation|last=Janasiak|first=Christoph|url=http://newsletter.kf.or.kr/korean/contents.asp?vol=39&lang=Korean&no=427|journal=한국국제교류재단 소식지|volume=11|number=4|title=폴란드 바르샤바대 한국학의 어제와 오늘: 오랜 어려움 속에서도 이어져 온 한국학 연구열|month=November|year=2003|journal=Korea Foundation Newsletter] North Korea also sent some students to Poland over the years; in May 1989, while Poland and South were still making overtures towards establishing full diplomatic relations with each other, two North Korean exchange students in Poland, Kim Un-hak and Tong Yŏng-jun, held a press conference to announce their defection to the South. [citation|url=http://film.ktv.go.kr/pop/photo_pop.jsp?photo_PhotoSrcGBN=PT&photo_PhotoID=12293&detl_PhotoDTL=|title=폴란드에서 온 북한 유학생 동영준, 김운학 귀순 기자회견|date=20 May, 1989|accessdate=2008-10-05|periodical=National Audio Visual Information Service|location=South Korea]

Post-communist era

As of 2006, an estimated 75 North Koreans were employed at various Polish firms in the Baltic Sea coastal towns of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot, including some working as welders at the famous Gdańsk Shipyard where the Solidarity trade union was founded. The workers' salaries are paid to a holding company which is suspected to share the money with the North Korean government; they are accompanied by supervisors who speak fluent Polish but do not share in their work. They live in a dormitory in Olszynka and are taken directly to their job by bus; they have no contact with their neighbours. When informed of the long hours the workers were required to put in, seven days a week, and the possibility that their salaries were directly funding the North Korean regime, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy vice-minister Kazimierz Kuberski claimed that there was nothing he could do. [citation|url=http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/Gazeta-Wyborcza-24-Jan-2007.doc|periodical=Gazeta Wyborcza|date=24 January, 2007|accessdate=2008-10-05|title=Polish Authorities on the Employment of Koreans|first=Maria|last=Kruczkowska|first2=Mikołaj|last2=Chrzan] In June 2008, North Korea dispatched a further 42 labourers to cities in northwestern Poland to engage in construction work. [citation|periodical=Yonhap News|date=3 June, 2008|title=N. Korea sends construction workers to Poland|accessdate=2008-10-05|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34581747_ITM]

The community of South Koreans in Poland is not very large; between 1997 and 2005, their numbers fell by nearly four-tenths, from 825 to 516, according to the statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The LG Group and other South Korean electronics companies have established factories in Wrocław, and sent a number of Korean expatriate staff to live there; however, they are having trouble finding local workers and hope to obtain permission to import guest workers from China. [citation|periodical=Poland News Bulletin|title=Koreans cannot find Poles, want the Chinese|date=29 March, 2007|accessdate=2008-10-05|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30183927_ITM]

ee also

*Greeks in Poland

References