It has already been 30 years since thousands of North Korean defectors came to South Korea after North Korean great famine, known as Arduous March in the 1990s. However, they are still experiencing difficulties settling into South Korean society. In fact, according to the Centre for North Korean Human Rights report, one out of four North Korean defectors have thought about relocating to countries other than South Korea. Surprisingly, 18.8% of them even thought about returning to North Korea due to difficulties adapting to South Korea.

Economic self-sufficiency is one of the significant factors that can decide North Korean defectors settle stably. Yet, North Korean defectors earn low wages or do not even have job opportunities. These lead to social isolation and emotional and psychological difficulties for North Korean defectors, making it more difficult for them to settle in South Korean society.

Kang Ji-Hyun, CEO of iStory, which supports North Korean defectors by putting stories into fashion, became interested in fashion design after seeing foreigners wearing ripped jeans in North Korea. After coming to South Korea, she began studying fashion design.

Kang Ji-Hyun came to see how North Korean defectors are discriminated against in South Korea. They are socially discriminated against because they do not know South Korean culture and speak differently. Kang Ji-Hyun thought about how can North Korean defectors live happily in South Korea. Oneday, she had a chance to meet a North Korean defector in person. It made her think that how about I turn their story into fashion and spread it to South Korea.

iStory is a company that puts the stories of North Korean defectors into fashion, breaking prejudice against them and supporting their economic self-reliance. As the saying goes, The most personal is the most beautiful, iStory meets and interviews North Korean defectors and turns their stories into a drawing. The drawings are used for designing clothes so that people can feel the  with all the five senses. In addition, QR codes are attached to all clothes. They allow people to see the meaning of the pictures and the unique life stories in detail. iStory sells clothes in online and offline stores.

*What is NFT?

NFT is a non-fungible token (Non-Fungible Token), which is very easy to duplicate and is a technology that gives a unique value to digital content to make it distinctive.

The goal of iStory is to share the stories of 33,000 North Korean defectors through various ways so that prejudice against North Korean defectors disappears. We will be able to change how people think about North Korean defectors by letting South Korean realize that they are no different from North Korean defectors.

Please make an impact donation so that iStory can spread the stories of North Korean defectors to break social prejudice!