[Election Feature] Naturalized Citizens Vote as Korean Nat’ls

An elderly Malaysia-born woman who came to Korea decades ago voted as a Korean national for the first time in the general elections yesterday.

Mariam, 86, whose Korean name is Kim Soon-ae, opened her bag and pulled out her identification card before entering the voting station in Namyangju, an eastern Seoul suburb. She made sure she brought ID and said with a smile, “This is something important that I shouldn’t forget.”

She left Malaysia in 1943 to marry a Korean man. He dumped her in 1955, but Mariam remained in Korea. She said she has visited polling stations in every election since she believes she is a Korean due to her love of kimchi and red pepper paste.

Mariam, however, had been unable to vote because she could not apply for permanent resident status. In December last year, her application for Korean citizenship was finally approved, and her ID card was issued in January this year.

Her dream of becoming a Korean citizen has come in the nick of time, as her health has rapidly declined due to hypertension and heart disease. For the past nine months, she has been hospitalized.

An election officer checked her name on the voter registration list, sounding out Mariam’s name (she cannot read Korean characters). She pleasantly responded and greeted with a nod.

Walking away from the polling station after voting, she apparently felt disappointed over the short process.

“I really want to see [Korea] prosper, not engage in political wrangling, so that every one in this nation can be well off,” she said, holding out the business card of the candidate she voted for.

“I will keep an eye on the candidate to see if he or she helps constituents if elected.”

Kang Yeong-jo, who came from Heilongjiang Province in China, also voted for the first time as a Korean citizen.

Arriving in Korea in July 2005, he received Korean citizenship in May last year. He couldn’t vote in the last presidential election in December since he had to leave his town to do construction work in Busan.

Walking out of a polling station in Seoul’s Gwanak district after voting in the morning, he proudly said, “I now feel like being a real Korean citizen.”

Kang works for an organization of naturalized Korean citizens from China, helping Chinese Koreans with problems in acquiring Korean citizenship. His main work is to serve as a bridge between fellow Chinese Koreans and domestic groups that can help them.

“To find out about immigration policies of candidates and reflect on the results of my vote, I held meetings with my fellow Chinese Koreans,” he said. “My hope is that elected candidates try their best to promote their interests in difficult conditions.”

North Korean defectors receiving education and vocational training at a center in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, also cast their ballots for the first time in the country.

A 22-year-old “Kim” defected from the North in October last year and studies at a school for North Korean defectors. He visited a nearby polling booth, along with the principal and other teachers at the school.

“I felt uneasy when casting my vote since this was the first time I did it,” Kim said. “But it wasn’t that hard since we held a mock voting session at school.”

In Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, five elderly women who were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during World War II, also called “comfort women,” also voted. Eleven comfort women had voted in the 2004 general elections.

Over the past four years, four former comfort women have died including two this year. Park Ok-ryeon, the oldest member, and Kim Gun-ja could not vote because of illness.

A staff from their home said,“ I am afraid to know how many of them can vote in the next elections given that most of them are very old. He added, they hope the newly elected lawmakers will aggressively resolve the comfort women issue.”

In the southern city of Gwangju, 110-year-old Choi Yang-dan cast her vote with the help of her daughter-in-law Shim Pan-rye at a polling station.

Upon Choi’s arrival, everyone in the polling station greeted her with applause as she came in a vehicle provided by a mobile volunteer.

Shim, 72, who has received a filial piety award for taking care of Choi for a half century, said, “Over the years, I have never seen my mother-in-law miss a chance to vote. I am pleased to see her still able to exercise her voting right today.”

gaea@donga.com sukim@donga.com