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Resettlement centers for North Korean defectors to be integrated next year

Published: 26 Dec. 2025, 13:58

This file photo, taken on July 12, 2002, shows the resettlement center for North Korean defectors, also known as Hanawon, in Anseong. [YONHAP]

The Unification Ministry said on Friday that it plans to integrate the main center and branch of Hanawon, the state facility that supports North Korean defectors' resettlement, next year amid a sharp decline in the number of such people coming to South Korea in recent years.

the headquarters of Hanawon is in Anseong, just south of Seoul, and helps resettle female North Korean defectors. Its branch is in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, supports male defectors.

“The government is reviewing measures to integrate those two facilities and redeploy personnel to ensure efficient operations [...] as soon as possible,” Chang Yoon-jeong, the ministry's deputy spokesperson, said during a press briefing.

The move comes as the number of North Koreans entering the South has plunged since the North sealed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of defectors peaked at 2,914 in 2009 before falling to 1,047 in 2019. It has since dropped sharply to 229 in 2020 — when Pyongyang closed its borders due to the pandemic — and has yet to recover, with only 236 defectors recorded last year.

The integration plan was reported to President Lee Jae Myung during last week's briefing for the ministry's 2026 policy plan.

Yonhap