S. Korea to launch special team for N.K. defector issues

S. Korea to launch special team for N.K. defector issues 2013/08/28 16:21 SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign ministry plans to launch a task force next week to support North Koreans hiding overseas hoping to resettle here, officials said Wednesday. The five-member team, tentatively named the National Community Overseas Cooperation Team to be set up under the arm of the ministry's Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Bureau, will be tasked with dealing with issues related to North Koreans who have fled their homeland and are staying in other countries en route to South Korea. After being approved by the Cabinet, the new entity is expected to begin its operation around next weekend, according to a foreign ministry official. Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are believed to be hiding in China, hoping to travel to Laos, Thailand or other Southeast Asian countries before coming to South Korea, home to more than 25,000 defectors from the North. "Until now, the defector issues were managed by the ministry's several different offices, which often hindered systematic responses from the early stages," the official said. "The establishment of the new team is expected to allow us to work on the matter in an organized and swift way." The ministry has vowed to devise measures to ensure their safe arrival, particularly after nine young North Korean defectors who escaped to Laos through China were forcibly deported back by Lao authorities to their totalitarian homeland in May. As part of its efforts, the ministry has beefed up its manpower in its two diplomatic missions in Southeast Asian countries, another ministry official said, without elaborating further. The government has also revised policy guidelines for its overseas diplomatic missions on how to deal with the defector issues, calling for more proactive responses to the matter. graceoh@yna.co.kr (END)