Kotjebi, kotchebi, or ggotjebi[1] (Korean: 꽃제비; RR: kkotjebi; MR: kkotchebi; lit. flowering swallows) is a Korean term for North Korean homeless people, given because of the kotjebi's constant search for food and shelter.[2] The term was originally used in reference to homeless children.[3] The kotjebi are not officially recognized in North Korea, with any mention of the term being prohibited in state publications and documents.[4]
The orphaned kotjebi first appeared en masse in the mid-1990s in the wake of the North Korean famine, when the food production and distribution system collapsed.[4] In an effort to "stabilize the livelihood of vagrants throughout the country", the North Korean government established special "Children's Detention Camps" in 1995, which were effectively rundown apartments. Because of poor conditions in the detention camps, children died of malnutrition.[5] Elderly people are known as noin kotjebi.
The kotjebi are constantly forced to seek food and thus gather in groups to beg and pickpocket.[4] Most of the kotjebi eat only once a day. The diet of the kotjebi, along with the food they obtain from begging, consists mainly of grass soup, wild vegetable porridge, and grass roots.[6]
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