N. Korean defectors allowed to change resident ID number

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has revised legislation to allow North Korean defectors to change their social security numbers by which their background could otherwise be inferred, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.

Most defectors receive ID numbers identifiable by the area code of the defector
resettlement center south of Seoul, unlike those born in South Korea who are
given ID numbers associated with their birthplace.
Defector organizations have urged the Seoul government to adjust the numbering
system, saying the newcomers are denied visas to China and discriminated against
by South Korean employers due to their conspicuous IDs.
"With the revision passed by the National Assembly on Jan. 8, North Korean
defectors who have received ID numbers linked to the Hanawon resettlement center
will be able to file for adjustment," the ministry said in a statement.
The Law on the Protection and Support for Settlement of North Korean Defectors
was established in 1997 to help the newcomers adjust to life in the capitalist
South, offering social and vocational training.
All defectors receive mandatory eight-week resettlement training in the Hanawon
center in Anseong, 77 kilometers south of Seoul, after entering the country.
The revision also made settlement grants available for long-term defectors who
have stayed abroad for more than 10 years after leaving North Korea.
More than 15,000 North Korean defectors have arrived in the South since the end
of the 1950-53 Korean War, a large number of which came after a famine swetp the
communist nation in the mid-1990s.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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