SEOUL – Young North Korean defectors are individuals with different traits, and South Korean public education should treat them as such, a volunteer who has worked with them said.

Toronto native Christine Pickering, 28, served as a volunteer with PSCORE (People for Successful COrean REunification) from late 2011 until this February. Having spent about four years living in the South, where she teaches English at a private women’s university, Pickering was motivated to volunteer after reading of the struggles defectors face even after escaping the North.

She “developed a strong relationship” with the young defectors she taught, and “they often