Human Rights #8

Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/02/160_77664.html

Title : the Human Rights of normal refugees compared to North Korean Refugees in S.Korea

The problem about North Korea and the North Korean government is well-known problem in global world.

At the result of the effect of the pressure by global society, the South Korean government showed us a great improvement about policy for the refugees from North Korea. The resettlement system for North Korean refugee is quite well-developed, compared to the one for Non-North Korean refugee. According to this article, South Korea government offer each of them quite big amount of money from the arrival.

The author in the article says “Under the law enacted in 1997, North Korean refugees go through 12 weeks of resettlement training before becoming South Korean citizens, supported by the country’s social safety net. They receive 6 million (about $5,320) in cash per household for settlement, more financial aid for housing, employment and college tuition, in addition to career training opportunities and preferential treatment in college admission.”

In addition, they can have free-education while they are in “Hanawon” and after they get out, they can apply for University using designated opening made only for North-Korean.

However, the status of Non-North Korean refugee is the same is nothing. There is no policy for them, neither any financial support. In my opinion, the biggest problem is they don’t have a chance to earn their living. Their right to work is deprived by the government, so they eventually go to construction site and work illegally, getting paid only little amount of money.

Compared to the size of economy in South Korea, the number of refugee is way too few. This is partly because of the geographical feature, but I think it is mainly because our poor support system on the refugees.

Although they have been improving time to time, building support institution recently, without any improvement on imperative problem such as lack of legal support, this bad circulation won’t stop and the national reputation of S.Korea about treating foreigner will never going to be better.