In a quiet suburb outside of London resides Europe’s largest Korean expatriate population. Among this tight-knit community are a significant number of DPRK defectors, who are forging a new life for themselves in a place they now call home.
Text:JeSeungLee
HOP ON A TRAIN FROM LONDON’S WATERLOO Station, head south-west and in less than half an hour you will reach New Malden, a suburb situated on the outskirts of the capital. At first glance, this quiet residential area appears little different from other neighbourhoods. But begin to make your way down the high street and you will notice that the signs are filled with letterings from a distant land.
New Malden is home to the largest South Korean community in Europe, and it serves as a commercial and cultural hub for Koreans living in the UK. Ethnic Koreans account for around one third of the area’s population, a figure estimated at around 10,000. For this reason, the suburb has come to be known as London’s very own Koreatown, despite the fact it’s around 11 miles from the centre of the city. In New Malden, you can find almost anything that’s related to Korea: there are Korean supermarkets and restaurants, Korean hair salons and churches, a Korean school, a Korean kindergarten and even a Korean elderly community centre.
The South Korean embassy was originally based in New Malden. It is also where Samsung set up its first European headquarters. The main office of the Korean weekly newspaper EuroJournal, which is distributed to 19 countries across Europe and boasts the highest circulation amongst Korean newspapers in the continent, is also based in the suburb.
But, more recently, the vast presence of the South Korean expatriate population in New Malden has drawn in legions of another cluster of immigrants – those from north of the demarcation line that separates the two Koreas. Around 700 North Koreans currently reside in New Malden, making it the world’s largest North Korean settlement outside the Korean peninsula. North Koreans first arrived in New Malden back in 2003. Since then, many more have joined their compatriots and settled down in the area to form the sizable group that it is today.
Shin Ae Kim is the president of the North Korean society in the UK. She is the seventh person – and first woman – to be elected for the post. Kim relocated to New Malden in 2008 with her three children after hearing about the existence of a North Korean community through word of mouth.
“Before moving to New Malden, I used to live in Leeds and life was tough,” she says. “I was quite ill, so whenever I w
