North Korean fashion, drums, and jubilation: Here’s how South Koreans celebrated the first-ever Defectors’ Day

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

In the shadow of what looks like Seoul’s colossal chrome space station, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, hundreds of defectors from North Korea gathered for lively celebrations on Sunday marking the first nationwide North Korean Defectors’ Day.

The inaugural event, declared by the government to be held each July 14, recognizes approximately 34,000 North Koreans who escaped the authoritarian grip of Pyongyang to resettle in the South – leaving behind legacies of fear, deep familial ties, and days devoted to a repressive regime often seen as frozen in time.

The joy of freedom marked the celebration on Sunday, the thunderous tempo from massive drums declaring a spirited independence from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The echoes of well-known North Korean songs celebrating friendship spilled into nearby neighborhoods, as families filled booths serving both North and South Korean treats such as the deep-fried confection yakgwa, and fruit punch, or hwachae.

A booth at the Defectors' Day festival sells North Korean styles of traditional treats, including watermelon punch (hwachae), the glutinous rice dessert yugwa, and the deep-fried sweet yakgwa.

The lively celebrations in the heart of South Korea are particularly significant given the difficulties defectors often face once they arrive – with many struggling to assimilate, and a rare few even risking their lives to return to the hermit nation. Among the problems they face are financial hardship, discrimination and deep stigma among South Koreans against defectors.

Activists and authorities hope this new annual celebration will help to change that.

“This is something that we all have to celebrate,” said Park Daehyeon, a defector who fled North Korea in