North Korean Defectors' Self-representation as the Politics of Refusal

While the number of North Korean defectors in South Korea has increased, their portrayal in the mainstream media remains marginal and biased. Given this context, this article explores how North Korean defectors have gradually engaged in self-representation through new media technologies, such as personal broadcasting on digital platforms. In so doing, it reveals that the defectors at least partially challenge the dominant representation or lack of representation of North Koreans and seek self-representation. Drawing on scholarly literature and textual analysis of North Korean defectors' self-representation through Internet personal broadcasting, this study examines how defectors explore different ways of negotiating the dominant construction of themselves as the other of South Koreans.