SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Back in North Korea, Ji Seong-ho saw elections as nothing more than a formality, because even a vote against the ruling Workers’ Party-picked candidates, let alone criticism of the government, could land voters in prison. Running for office was an unthinkable privilege reserved for elites and well-connected people. That’s [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — About one out of five North Korean defectors experienced discrimination in South Korea last year mostly due to “cultural” differences, a survey showed Wednesday. According to the survey conducted by the Hana Foundation, a state-run agency that helps resettlement of North Korean defectors, 17.2 percent of 3,000 defectors polled [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean defectors launched a preparatory committee Tuesday to establish the first-ever political party composed of defectors in South Korea, saying the envisioned party will work for democratization of their communist homeland and better protection of defectors’ rights. Around 200 North Korean defectors came together at the meeting in [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The average monthly wage of North Korean defectors living in South Korea exceeded 2 million won (US$1,684) for the first time last year, the unification ministry said Tuesday. Defectors earned 2.04 million won (US$1,720) per month on average in 2019, compared with 1.89 million won in 2018, according to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — A total of 157 North Korean defectors were held in South Korean prisons as of July, with 54 serving time for drug-related crimes, government data showed Tuesday. The number of defector prisoners has been on a steady rise in recent years from 113 in 2015 to 135 in 2016, [...]
GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — PyeongChang Olympic organizers won’t provide North Korean and Iranian players with Samsung smartphones, which are available free to all other athletes, for fear of violating international sanctions on the countries, officials said Wednesday. Samsung Electronics has offered some 4,000 units of the Galaxy Note 8 Olympic Edition [...]
SEOUL, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea has been scrambling to reinforce its cyberwarfare capabilities and the number of its professional hackers is estimated to have reached about 7,700, a report issued in Seoul said Friday. The report by the Korea Institute for National Unification said that South Korea should come up with comprehensive [...]
SEOUL, Korea, August 06 (Korea Bizwire) – Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea EximBank) announced on August 5 that it will be donating 20 million won to college students that have defected from North Korea. Kim Yong-hwan, president of Korea EximBank presented the donation to Jang Hyong-ok, chairman of the Together Foundation, with four North Korean defector college [...]