This file photo taken July 12, 2002, shows the resettlement center for North Korean defectors, also known as Hanawon, located in Anseong, about 65 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The unification ministry said Friday it plans to integrate the main center and branch of Hanawon, the state facility for supporting North Korean defectors’ resettlement, next year amid a sharp decline in the number of such people coming to South Korea in recent years.
Currently, the headquarters of Hanawon is located in Anseong, just south of Seoul, to help the resettlement of female North Korean defectors, and its branch is being operated in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, for male defectors.
“The government is reviewing measures to integrate those two facilities and redeploy personnel to ensure efficient operations and implement them as soon as possible,” Chang Yoon-jeong, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson, told a press briefing.
The move comes as the number of North Koreans entering the South has plunged since the North sealed its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of defectors peaked at 2,914 in 2009 before falling to 1,047 in 2019. It has since dropped sharply to 229 in 2020, when Pyongyang closed its borders to block the pandemic from spreading, and has yet to recover, with only 236 defectors recorded last year.
The integration plan was reported to President Lee Jae Myung during last week’s briefing for the ministry’s 2026 policy plan.
(Yonhap)
