Refugees International is mounting an assessment mission to look into the situation for North Korean refugees in South Korea. This is a follow-up to RI's previous mission in late June 2003, which focused on the plight of North Korean refugees in China.  (See RI’s North Korea web site.)

The primary purpose of the mission is to explore the apparent reluctance of South Korea to take more refugees from the North, and to examine how North Koreans are coping with the challenges of adapting to the vastly different society that they find in South Korea. While some 60-100,000 North Koreans are currently in China, South Korea accepts only 1,000 refugees for resettlement, even though by law North Koreans have a right to full citizenship in the South.

RI will meet with Korean government officials responsible for humanitarian programs on behalf of North Koreans, visit the government's refugee processing and vocational training facility at Hanawon, and meet with Korean NGOs involved in support and advocacy on behalf of North Korean refugees.

RI's mission takes place in the context of efforts on Capitol Hill, led by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, to mandate expedited processing of North Koreans for resettlement in the United States. While in principle, cultural and linguistic affinity would appear to argue for support to resettlement in South Korea, the low numbers of those actually resettled suggest that South Korean efforts may indeed need to be supplemented by the United States. Access to North Korean refugees in China and security concerns remain significant obstacles to any possible U.S. effort.