Unification minister says designating day for defectors also meaningful for NK people

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho speaks in a meeting with civic organizations at the government complex in Seoul, Jan. 29. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

South Korea's point man on North Korea said Monday that designating a day for North Korean defectors would not only be meaningful for those who have settled in South Korea but also those living in the North.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho made the remarks after President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the ministry to designate a day for North Korean defectors in a Cabinet meeting on Jan. 16, noting they are South Korean citizens under the country's Constitution.

"The success of North Korean defectors is a touchstone of our society's capacity for unification, and a message of hope for a free and prosperous future for North Korean residents," Kim said in a meeting with civic organizations on designating such a day.

"It should be a day for the North Korean defectors, by the North Korean defectors and of the North Korean defectors," Kim said, emphasizing the importance of North Korean defectors in South Korean society.

Kim said the ministry will better support North Korean defectors to enjoy successful lives in South Korea through policy efforts, including increasing resettlement subsidies for new defectors and expanding mental health services for them in different regions.

Civic organizations that attended the meeting, including defector groups, welcomed ongoing efforts to designate such a day.

"We defectors and leaders of defector groups enthusiastically support and express gratitude as this is nurturing a pro-South Korea sentiment and a growing yearning for unification led by the Republic of Korea," Kim Heung-kwang, chief of the North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, said, calling the move "unprecedented."

South Korea has a longstanding policy of accepting any North Korean defectors who want to live in the South and repatriating any North Koreans who stray into the South if they want to return.

The total number of North's defectors in South Korea had reached 34,078 as of the end of last year, according to ministry data. (Yonhap)