Repatriation program of Sakhalin Koreans to homeland over.

12/3 Tass 265

VLADIVOSTOK, March 12 (Itar-Tass) -- The 10-year repatriation program
of Sakhalin Koreans to the homeland is over. Some 4,200 people went to
South Korea for permanent residence. The last group of 26 repatriates flew
from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Seoul on Friday. They will settle in the city of
Sochon, chairman of the organization of the separated families of Sakhalin
Koreans Sergei Li Su Din said.

Almost all repatriates are representatives of the so-called first
generation, who were born before August 15, 1945 in southern Sakhalin,
when this part of the island belonged to Japan and was called Karafuto
Prefecture. Some of them were brought to the island from Korea under the
forcible labour mobilization. The population of Karafuto Prefecture made
up about 400,000 people - about 360,000 Japanese and about 40,000 Koreans.
Upon the end of the Second World War the overwhelming majority of Japanese
citizens were brought to Hokkaido Island, and the Koreans happened to stay
on Sakhalin, though they were Japanese citizens.
Currently the Korean diaspora on Sakhalin numbers 30,000 people. The
repatriation of Korean war veterans to the Korean Peninsula was held with
the assistance of the South Korean and Japanese Red Cross Committees.
Holiday homes or houses with the flats from 50 to 70 square meters for two
people were built in various South Korean cities for Sakhalin Koreans. The
repatriates will also receive 400 dollars monthly to buy primary
necessities.
Sergei Li Su Din noted that the mass repatriation does not mean that
this process is over. Since 2010 elderly Sakhalin Koreans, who wished to
return to the historical homeland, will go to South Korea, as long as
vacant flats and rooms at the holiday homes are built for them.
-0-baz/mil


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