[앵커]
Following the belated discovery of the mother and son of a North Korean defector who died of starvation three years ago, a North Korean refugee woman was found dead in a rented apartment in Seoul last month.
Reporter Park Jeong-hyeon explained why such tragedies repeat themselves after risking his life to flee North Korea and settle in Korea.
[기자]
On the 19th of last month, a North Korean woman in her forties was found dead in a rented apartment in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.
At the time he wore winter clothes and was in such a state of corruption that his identity could not be identified.
The deceased lived alone here for 20 years.
The death of the deceased was only revealed after deportation was decided after nearly two years of non-payment of rent and maintenance fees.
This is not the first time North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea have been found dead.
In 2019, a North Korean refugee woman with her 6-year-old son was discovered two months after her death while suffering from hardship.
It has been pointed out earlier that there are gaps in the North Korean defector management system.
When signs of crisis are detected for North Korean refugees, the Ministry of Health and Welfare informs the local government in charge and the Ministry of Unification.
After the local governments have carried out the basic investigation, the Ministry of Unification will carry out an additional investigation.
Again, the Ministry of Health and Welfare notified Yangcheon-gu and the Unification Ministry of the abnormal symptoms five times over last year, but Kim was left unattended because both organizations could not reach them.
Furthermore, as of this year, the Unification Ministry has reduced the scope of the investigation to only North Korean deserters excluded from local government investigations to avoid administrative overlaps.
Mr. Kim was also banned from this year’s management by the Unification Ministry.
Experts say that, given the nature of North Korean defectors who have no ties to South Korea, tighter management is needed and stress the need to unify departments to clarify who is responsible and keep track of them.
[임순희 / 북한인권정보센터 본부장 : (지자체는) 다시 무조건 탈북민은 우리 영역이 아니야라고 배제를 하는 상황이니까 그런 것들이 문제인 것 같고.]
Basically, we need support to help North Koreans consolidate themselves in their communities.
[김용화 / 탈북난민인권연합 대표 : 노원에서 몇 개월 전에 젊은 애가 죽었는데 언제 죽었는지 알 수 없이 죽어가는 탈북자들이 너무 많은 거예요.]
About 30,000 North Korean deserters have settled in South Korea.
Since the scale is not small, it seems urgent to integrate the system to reduce welfare blind spots.
This is YTN Park Jung-hyun.
YTN Park Jung-hyun ([email protected])
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