Park So-hyang, 72, president of the Association of Korean Nurses in Germany, met with a reporter on the night of the 28th and said, "I was startled as I read an article reporting President Lee Jae-myung's remarks at a Cabinet meeting." On the 27th, at a Cabinet meeting presided over at the Blue House, President Lee said, "Even if you bring in foreign workers to do the work, it does not help the national economy much. They just remit all of it back home." On the 29th, the day after the interview, at a state dinner at the Blue House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Lee mentioned the miners and nurses dispatched to Germany and said, "They contributed to Germany's success and laid the cornerstone for the rich people-to-people exchanges and ties between the two countries."
Park said, "Didn't we also send miners and nurses to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s to earn foreign currency?" She added, "While I worked as a nurse, if I earned 2,000 marks a month, I would leave only 5 marks for living expenses and send all the rest to my homeland." She continued, "At a young age, how many things must I have wanted to buy and eat," and said, "Thinking only of family and the homeland, I kept vowing over and over, 'You must not spend money carelessly.'"
Park said that although the nurses were "frugal" who sent most of their income to Korea and hardly consumed, they had never received the stingy assessment that they "do not help the economy." "From Germany's standpoint, it needed nursing staff but could not fill the positions domestically, so it supplemented them with foreign workers," she said. "Germans called us from far away 'Korean angels' and treated us with respect."
◇ "Behind the Miracle on the Han River were the nurses dispatched to Germany"
Park, whose hometown is Pohang, North Gyeongsang, worked as a nurse in the Middle East from 1976 to 1978, then moved to Germany in 1979. She met her German husband there and started a family. She still lives in the Bielefeld area in Germany.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of nurses being dispatched to Germany. The Park Chung-hee administration sent more than 10,000 nurses to Germany from 1966 to 1976. The foreign currency they quietly earned and sent home became the foundation of industrialization. In 1966, the remittances of miners and nurses dispatched to Germany amounted to nearly 2% of Korea's total exports at the time.
Among the more than 10,000 nurses dispatched to Germany, about 2,000 are estimated to be alive. Some of them returned home. There are about 350 full members of the Association of Korean Nurses in Germany who reside in Germany. Of these, 91 visited Korea this time.
Park expressed regret that the story of the nurses dispatched to Germany, who filled a page of Korea's modern history, is not being properly passed down to later generations. She said, "I hear they are looking for descendants of participants in the Donghak Peasant Movement, for whom historical records are hard to find, to offer subsidies, but there is no such discussion at all regarding the nurses and miners dispatched to Germany," and added, "I hope our descendants remember that behind the Miracle on the Han River were the nurses dispatched to Germany who devoted themselves to Korea."
◇ "I want to feel the warmth of the homeland by living in Korea for a month"
Park picked her meeting with former President Park Geun-hye as the most moving moment during her visit to Korea. On the 25th, Park made a surprise appearance at a "welcome dinner for nurses dispatched to Germany visiting Gumi" held in Gumi, North Gyeongsang. It is said that Gumi Mayor Kim Jang-ho contacted former President Park's side to request her attendance.
Park said, "Members were greatly comforted as they saw former President Park wiping away tears while thanking the nurses dispatched to Germany," adding, "North Gyeongsang Gov. Lee Cheol-woo and Gumi Mayor Kim Jang-ho prepared the event with considerable affection for the nurses dispatched to Germany. I am truly grateful."
She said that Korea now is "so different" from 60 years ago and that "every time I come to Korea, I witness its progress." In particular, she said, "High-end German sedans that are hard to see even in Germany are common in Seoul," adding, "I want to bring more members and show them how Korea has changed."
She continued, "Among the nurses dispatched to Germany who are living in Germany, many want to return to their homeland, but without family or relatives, they cannot even think about it," and added, "A permanent return would be difficult, but I hope opportunities arise to feel the warmth of the homeland by, for example, living there for a month."
