on viewpoint today we have a journalist from radio free asia whose story about two north
korean female defectors recently granted her a special award now for more on her report and
related recognition i have chan suram here in the studio it's a pleasure to have you here swaram
and congratulations on winning this year's gracie award thank you so much and thank you for having
me here right let's for the sake of our viewers here then let's start with a few words on the
gracie awards itself and on the alliance for women in media foundation that hosts this annual event
sure um so the glacier awards is established in 1975 and it marks 70 47th anniversary this year
and the glacial awards are mainly for women in media also they recognize extraordinary
program created by umang for women and about women who are making positive change
in the media i see what about the foundation itself the alliance for women in media foundation
what is the purpose of that particular foundation um they try to highlight oman's work in the media
yeah i feel like they that's the main reason right so now among the winners for this year aside from
yourself of course we have melissa mccarthy and kelly clarkson just to name a few how do you feel
it felt really unreal at first and it's been only one and a half years since i started working with
rfa so i was not expecting to win the grace awards to be honest um and yeah it would have
been really impossible without unconditional help from my editor director and my co-worker um so i
just can't forget the moment i figured out about the crazy award was just one day i just woke up
in the morning and because i work with the dc team and there is time difference so my morning written
is checking my work emails i was i was checking email and then there are tons of emails from my
co-workers director editor and it was about grace hours i was like my heart was really reading fast
right i'm sure congratulations again of course now this may be a tough question but what do
you believe was the reason behind this particular recognition for your report by the foundation um
the report is solved is by um me and my co-worker john minog and it's for women and it's about women
so it's for women and everyone who might not have enough information about north korean society
and this gives a unique chance to picture how it's like to live as a woman in north korea and it's
about women it's just the journey of two north korean female defectors in their early 20 kim and
lee and it has testimony from various age groups from their 20s and 50s and it depicts the changes
of north korean woman's perspective over time in a heavily male dominated society and how they seek
changes to become an independent woman and we also has lindsay miller she's from uk and she lived in
pyongyang for two years so getting outsiders view is extremely difficult these days so by having her
in our report i feel like we have insider's view and outsiders view which allowed us have more
colorful story for the people i see and i will ask you about your interview with linda lindsey
in a little while but first let's go back to your actual coverage then so you covered the escape
from north korea into south korea by two north korean defectors female defectors that is how
did you first meet them and what were your initial thoughts about them during your first encounter um
so i did this story with reporter jean-mino and he in 2019 um he met the two of the defectors
um who just crossed the mekong river and who just escaped from north korea um so he
followed the defection journey and he met like 13 13 people of north korean defectors and the
two of them are among the 13. um so that's how we first met not me but him how he first met them and
that the starting point of our project for this one and for me i met them last year in september
i guess and like the first initial encounter um my impression was just too young there's
two young korean women in their early 20s um but then after i have a conversation with them
after i interviewed them about what they went through about the fiction journey i just couldn't
believe what they went through um so after the conversation in interview i see them as
two young brave independent women in south korea right i'm sure they're bravery of course
the title of your reports translate into english literally is re-routing define the given path and
paving a new one which i understand is essentially what these two female north korean defectors were
seeking to do tell us a bit about the given path for north korean women and the new path
that they seek to pave so the gibbon path in north korea it's heavily male dominated society
they face severe gender inequality in their daily lives they feel pressure to get married
have children and have family before a certain age and getting married is not an option for them
it's a must they have to get married um it's a matter of survival that's what i heard
um for like paying the new one in south korea so they want to become independent women that's
why they came to south korea um so the two north korean defectors kim and ni um kim is studying to
become an accountant and lee is studying nursing chasing her dream of working in a medical field
they knew that the gender equality inequality is also a problem in south korea um but what
they have achieved since they got to south korea would have been impossible in the in north korea
um so they are taking their first step to become independent one right well that is great to know
so i'm going back to your report simply speaking then your coverage touches upon
the universal plight perhaps faced by women living in oppressed societies but with regard
to the north korean women i understand aside from being required to be caregivers and housekeepers
they're also required to be breadwinners could you tell us a bit about that um so typically when they
get married they have to do housework raise kids and they have to also work because their
standard of living is not really good enough just for one person like their husband working
but then based on the interview north korean woman's perspective are changing these days
among young women they want to focus more about their career and they
they are they like eager to have their own jobs but they are still being forced to get married
but they are not not rushing so they are slowly changing the perspectives are changing but there
are still old generation who has who think they have to get married at a certain age um yeah so
now these days they are less focused on the marriage and they are more interested in living
their lives as individuals right and this change is occurring in north korea at the moment yes
i think right you mentioned earlier about your interview with lindsay miller the wifey former
british diplomat who was stationed in pyongyang of course do tell us a bit about her observations
with regard to the lives of north korean women so there are two interesting points um
so lindsay miller lived in pyongyang for two years so she had an opportunity to talk to nurse
karen uma many times um so based on con based on the conversation she had windows korean women
the biggest pressure they feel is about dating and getting married so their parents are forcing
them to get married and as i said earlier their perspectives are changing these days
but then there are still stereotypes among old generation um that's why north korean
women feel pressure about the marriage um the other one is about their appearance
so they have limited freedom about how they look what they wear um so the reason controls
their clothes and their hairstyle and so on um so their left option is the tiny accessories and
their shoes um so women in pyongyang would wear really high hills and like shiny high holes um so
shoes are one of the means to express themselves right to kind of like show yourself their sense
of individual taste with regard to shoes then so finally what are some stories that you plan to
follow up on this particular year um so my team news in-depth team um we have another project
coming in we're planning on doing coverage about korean work so we like to highlight the tragedy of
war following the ukraine crisis um in 2020 and through the korean war in 2015
up so we like to examine whether these conflicts could lead to second korean war um so we also
like to examine the impact of ukraine war on northeast asia and korean peninsula
so a huge project is coming in so please tuning up right and what do you hope your readers will
learn from the url your audience that is will gain from your latest coverage with regard to warfare
so many people in south korea they tend to disregard about the importance of i mean we
live in south korea so north korea is like our daily encounter
but then the ukraine crisis could lead to another like conflict in korean peninsula so we
would like to highlight that importance and raise awareness about the potential danger perhaps then
all right saram thank you very much for making the time to join us live and also do have fun at the
award ceremony i understand it's on the 24th of may over in l.a oh actually i'm not going there
reporter noise going there because like i have coverage planning south korea so i just i don't
make it well that's unfortunate but still congratulations on the gracie award all right