Under Lee Myung Bak, Refugee Policy Moves in a More Humane Direction … Mostly
The number of North Korean refugees arriving in South Korea has risen by a whopping 42 percent from the number arriving this time last year:
The ministry estimated the number of North Korean defectors coming to the South in the first six months of this year to be 1,744, up 41.7 percent from 1,230 during the same period last year. The figure represented a growth of 101 percent from 869 in the corresponding period in 2006.
A ministry official said the government is swiftly processing entries for defectors waiting in third countries to come to South Korea. The number of North Koreans who have defected to the South since 1998 has reached about 14,000, including 2,544 in 2007 alone. [Yonhap]
Recall that just as Lee’s government was taking office, it came under strong criticism for allowing refugees to pile up in overcrowded Thai detention centers. The government promised to expand the capacity of its Hanawon in-processing center, and they’ve apparently stayed true to their word. Good for them.
If Lee has any success at persuading the Chinese to stop repatriating North Koreans back to Kim Jong Il’s gulags and firing squads, it could result in a quickening of the refugee exodus from the North.
On the other hand, the South Korean government has just announced that it will prosecute North Koreans who defect to third countries after obtaining South Korean citizenship. The apparent purpose is to prevent refugees from collecting South Korean subsidies, and then moving on. I wonder how this can be harmonized with the Refugee Convention, although I suppose that’s never really bothered previous South Korean administrations.
To a degree, I sympathize with the South Korean decision. No doubt, they’re also thinking that this is a Korean problem that Korea needs to solve if there’s going to be any hope for a successful reunification.
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SOME ANJU LINKS
I DON’T KNOW WHY THIS STILL AMAZES ANYONE:
North Korea has either poorly used or diverted 9.3 billion won (US$8.6 million) worth of asphalt pitch given by South Korea to pave the landing strip at the Samjiyon Airport near Mount Baekdu, according to a report released August 25 by the Board of Audit and Inspection.
The pavement work that was done at Samjiyon was done haphazardly, and 2 billion won worth of asphalt was used elsewhere, and not for the Samjiyon Airport runway.
“While giving aid from the North-South Cooperation Fund, the Ministry of Unification failed to put in place devices that would prevent budget waste from poor construction and unauthorized appropriation by giving the aid gradually, based on progress in paving the runway,” said the report. [The Hankyoreh]
Either this is a matter of high-level theft, or low-level corruption (or a little of both). If it’s mostly the former, I supposed a few of North Korea’s military airfields have just been repaved (some of it went here, apparently). If the latter, you have to wonder how a country this corrupt manages to supply it military at all.
HOW THE A.Q. KHAN NETWORK WAS UNRAVELED is a very interesting story, but I’m not sure that it’s a good thing that I could read it in the New York Times.
CUTE.
MY DAD TAUGHT ME that you can’t eat like a sparrow and sh*t like a goose. Apparently, Kim Jong Il’s dad never taught him.