By Jang Hyun-min, Reporter
September 9, 2026

 

SEOUL — For Shin Myeong-do, a young North Korean defector, freedom was once the dream. After reaching South Korea and building a peaceful life, however, his dream became something less dramatic: simply to keep living an ordinary life.

“If you’d asked me years ago what my dream was, I would have said it was to leave North Korea and live freely,” Shin, who goes by the baptismal name Marcellino, said. “But once I had achieved that dream, living peacefully and freely, day by day, the way I do now, became my new one.”

His story captured the theme of a September 5 talk concert in Seoul: unification need not begin with politics or grand national projects. It can begin with people learning to regard one another as neighbors.

The “2026 Talk Concert: Unification Come Early, Living as One Together” was hosted by the Archdiocese of Seoul’s Council of Lay Apostolate Organizations at the Catholic Center in Myeongdong. The event introduced the work of Ttiatmeori, a companionship community that brings young people from North and South Korea together.


“Treat Them as Neighbors, Not Strangers”

Father Ignatius Jung Soo-yong, vice chairman of the Archdiocese of Seoul’s Committee for Reconciliation of the Korean People, opened the event with a keynote address on how South Koreans should view North Korean defectors.

The starting point, he suggested, is surprisingly simple: treat them as people like everyone else.

South Koreans do not normally regard fellow citizens who have moved from another part of the country with suspicion or ask what they should “watch out for”. North Korean defectors, Father Jung argued, deserve the same presumption of ordinary neighborliness.

Their circumstances may be different, but their basic story is familiar: they left behind difficult lives and came in search of a better future.

“If we can welcome North Korean defectors naturally, as neighbors, it will help us feel closer to the people who share our era with us,” Father Jung said.

That idea also shaped the experiences shared by the young participants. Rather than discussing unification as an abstract national question, they spoke about friendship, family, illness, examinations, injuries and the small acts of concern that make relationships endure.


Ttiatmeori Builds Bonds One Friendship at a Time

Ttiatmeori, a Korean word referring to the bond of affection between siblings, has brought young North and South Koreans together since 2011. Supported by the Society of the Blessed Korean Martyrs, the community pairs young people from the two Koreas as mentors and mentees.

Its premise is that coexistence cannot be taught solely through lectures or programs. It has to be experienced.

“Peace isn’t built through programs or education alone — it grows out of people with different life experiences sharing their lives with one another,” said Im So-jeong, a Ttiatmeori organizer who goes by the baptismal name Maria.

“Ttiatmeori aims for more than one side simply helping the other. We’re working toward a community that lives life together.”

The participants described how such a community develops through seemingly mundane encounters. They celebrate each other’s feast days, encourage one another during examination periods and stay in touch through social media. Over time, mentor and mentee can become less like participants in a program and more like members of an extended family.

Jang Beom-jo, a North Korean defector, recalled how one mentor helped him stay on track with his medical treatment and continued to worry about him after he suffered a sports injury.

“At a time when I had no idea what to do, just having someone there who worried alongside me meant a great deal,” he said.

Im Su-jin, who goes by the baptismal name Julianna, and Kim Ji-hyang, who goes by Lucia, participated as a mentor-mentee pair. They said they had become each other’s strongest source of support and hoped their friendship would last into old age.

“We hope to still be meeting each other when our hair has turned white,” they said.


“We Are Living Unification Ahead of Time”

Father Han Jang-ho of the Society of the Blessed Korean Martyrs, who serves as Ttiatmeori’s chaplain and guides its “space of coexistence” for young people from North and South Korea, reflected on the community’s evolution.

What began as a simple desire to become family with young people from the North has developed into a community in which members experience, on a small scale, what a unified Korea might look like.

“What began simply from the wish to become family with our friends from the North has grown into this,” Father Han said. “I’ve come to believe it isn’t something we could have achieved through our own efforts alone, without God’s help.”

He described the participants as “people living unification ahead of time” and said they would continue their work in that spirit.

The message of the gathering was modest but ambitious: political unification may depend on governments, treaties and institutions, but human unification begins much closer to home. Before North and South Koreans can become one people again, they may first have to learn to become neighbors, friends and, eventually, family.

장현민 기자 memo@cpbc.co.kr