U.N. refugee official to visit resettlement center for N. Korean defectors

SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- A U.N. official on refugees will visit a resettlement
center for North Korean defectors later Monday as part of her research into South
Korean programs for the newcomers, a government spokesperson here said.
Erika Feller, U.S. assistant high commissioner for refugees, arrived here on
Sunday to gather information about Seoul's defector policy and seek ways for
South Korea and the U.N. to cooperate, said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman for the
Ministry of Unification.
Feller will visit the state-run Hanawon center, south of Seoul, which provides a
mandatory 12-week resettlement training for all North Korean defectors who enter
the country, and meet with Chun Hae-sung, director general of the ministry's
humanitarian cooperation bureau, Lee said.
She is also set to meet with officials of the foreign affairs and justice
ministries before flying to Japan on Tuesday.
More than 15,000 people from North Korea have settled in the South since the end
of the Korean War in 1953, with about 3,000 more expected to come this year.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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