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RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG PRIORITY 3923
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J5 SEOUL KOR PRIORITY
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UNCLAS SEOUL 000179 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SREF PGOV PROP PREL KS KN
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S TRIP TO HANAWON AND HANGYERAE 
RESETTLEMENT SUPPORT INSTITUTIONS -- EFFECTIVE FIRST STEPS 
FOR NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS 
 
REF: A. 2008 SEOUL 02305 
     ¶B. 2008 SEOUL 00129 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Ambassador's January 29 visit to 
Hanawon Resettlement Center and Hangyerae Middle and High 
School revealed clean and modern facilities that show 
effective ROKG support for North Korean defectors on arrival 
in the ROK.  During 2008, Hanawon's main campus for female 
defectors doubled its maximum capacity from 300 to 600 
(partly by shortening training time), preparing to 
accommodate 3,600 women trainees per year; men are trained at 
another center.  Meanwhile, the Hangyerae School, an 
interagency effort to bridge defectors' educational gap, is 
overcrowded with 280 students and is seeking additional 
funding.  Recently arrived North Korean defectors told the 
Ambassador that they were in touch with family in North Korea 
and planned to bring children and other family members to the 
ROK, though they lamented that life in the ROK was more alien 
and required a bigger adjustment than living in China.  End 
Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
Hanawon Expansion: Well-funded; Ready To Receive More 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) To accommodate the increasing number of North Korean 
defectors each year (2,018 in 2006; 2,544 in 2007; and 2,809 
in 2008), the Ministry of Unification continues to spend 
close to one-half of the ministry's entire budget on Hanawon 
(USD 67 million in 2009).  During 2008, Hanawon's main campus 
for female defectors doubled its maximum capacity from 300 to 
600, preparing to accommodate 3,600 women trainees per year. 
The recent expansion and added employment training at Hanawon 
and the existence of Hangyerae School, targeted to assist 
North Korean defector teenagers, affirm a renewed ROKG 
commitment to provide a strong resettlement program.  Hanawon 
and Hangyerae are located in isolated rural surroundings near 
Ansung City, about an hour away from Seoul, but facilities 
are clean and modern. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Of the 2,809 North Korean defectors who arrived in 
the ROK in 2008, 2,197 (78 percent) were women in their 
twenties to forties.  About 17 percent were teenagers in need 
of middle or high school education.  The overall number of 
North Korean defectors in South Korea crossed the 15,000 
threshold in 2008.  The number is expected to continue to 
rise in the coming year. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Hanawon is the first stop for virtually all North 
Korean defectors after initial screening by the ROKG 
intelligence services upon arrival.  The main campus in 
Ansung City opened in July 1999, two years after the 
Settlement Support for Dislocated North Korea Act passed. 
The center at first trained about 900 defectors per year, but 
the need for an expansion came only a few years later.  The 
first expansion of the main campus in 2003 doubled its 
maximum capacity from 150 to 300 and allowed for 1,800 
trainees per year.  In 2006, a separate, smaller facility for 
adult males opened in Si-heung City, where 93 male defectors 
currently receive training.  To accommodate an influx of 
female defectors, who have outnumbered male defectors more 
than three to one since 2006, Hanawon's main campus took on a 
second expansion, completed in December 2008.  The center now 
stands ready to receive up to 600 students at a time for 
two-month orientation sessions; 3,600 per year.  Currently, 
Hanawon's main complex is half full, occupied by 304 female 
defectors, but Hanawon Director Ko Gyoung-bin seemed 
confident that the new dorms would not remain empty for long. 
 Hanawon begins a new training class every three weeks and 
three classes overlap during the 8-week period. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Similar to previous years, about 44 percent of 
MOU's entire budget, or USD 67 million, is earmarked for 
Hanawon in 2009.  Hanawon's facility was modern and 
impressive, fully equipped with a dental clinic, internal 
medicine and traditional Eastern medicine unit, nursery (as a 
baby is born to a mother in training every twenty days), 
cafeteria, computer labs, dormitories, library and an indoor 
gym as well as a new outdoor soccer field.  According to Ko, 
about 50 percent of Hanawon's medical budget (approximately 
USD 150,000) was spent on dental work.  The rest allowed the 
 
 
 
upkeep of the new and existing facilities, implementation of 
a mandatory training program for virtually all North Korean 
defectors arriving in South Korea and payment of 57 faculty 
members' salaries. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
Hangyerae: New, but Already Crowded; Useful Stepping Stone 
for North Korean Youth 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The Ministries of Unification and Education fund a 
school for defector teenagers, who in recent times have 
accounted for about 17 percent of the overall defectors. 
Unable to open as planned in 2003 because of opposition of 
residents at various locations considered for the school, 
Hangyerae finally opened in 2006 in Ansung -- already home to 
Hanawon resettlement center.  The school was completed in 
2007, fully equipped with a media room, computer lab, bakery, 
auditorium, English Village, dance studio, cafeteria, and 
apartment-style dorms on the top floor -- modern and 
high-tech, even by South Korean standards. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Hangyerae now provides room and board for 280 North 
Korean defector youth, who are without immediate adult family 
members in South Korea.  Fourteen faculty members assist the 
students round-the-clock, in classrooms during the day and in 
dorm rooms in the evening.  On average, students spend about 
a year at Hangyerae, but are permitted to stay up to two 
years, as needed.  According to Principal Kwak Jong-moon, 
most of the students did not receive formal schooling while 
en route to South Korea, often for four to five years or 
longer.  This prolonged period without education, coupled 
with South Korean passion for academic success, meant that 
North Korean teenagers faced enormous difficulty 
transitioning successfully into South Korean schools. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Kwak emphasized that Hangyerae was a crucial 
stepping stone, adding that almost all former Hangyerae 
students graduate from South Korean schools, compared with a 
90 percent drop-out rate for North Korean teenagers who do 
not complete the Hangyerae curriculum.  National Assembly 
member Kim Hack-yong (Grand National Party) whose district 
included Hanawon and Hangyerae, attended the briefing at 
Hangyerae School when he heard the Ambassador was visiting, 
and thanked the Ambassador for her interest. Representative 
Kim also noted the high quality of the facilities and 
curriculum at the school. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Despite the school's impressive success rate, Kwak 
said Hangyerae would soon have to turn away students if 
additional funding is not available.  The school is at twice 
its maximum capacity and teachers' overtime was not being 
compensated.  Kwak believed the students were motivated to 
succeed in South Korea and this could become reality, if 
given proper education and guidance. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
ROKG Financial Support: Revised, but Still Generous 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶10.  (SBU) While ROKG financial support for resettlement and 
housing assistance remained generous, the ROKG has made 
several revisions since 2006: 
 
-- Installments: Instead of a lump sum settlement allowance 
of USD 20,000, Hanawon graduates now receive a decreased, 
quarterly allowance of KRW 6 million, or about USD 4,500, for 
eight quarters. 
 
-- Security Deposit: USD 10,000 security deposit for a 
subsidized rental unit is no longer paid to the defector, but 
deposited directly on behalf of the new resident to prevent 
payment to brokers or misspending. 
 
(NOTE: About 10,000 out of 300,000 government subsidized 
units are occupied by North Korean defectors.  While 
localized housing provides assistance and convenience to 
recent arrivals, it also causes tension between South and 
North Korean residents.  END NOTE.) 
 
-- Employment Bonus: This added incentive was designed to 
 
 
encourage Hanawon graduates to seek employment opportunities 
instead of relying on government subsidies.  Free training 
and monthly allowance of KWR 200,000, or approximately USD 
150, is available for participants in employment training for 
six months or longer.  The ROKG also subsidizes companies 
employing Hanawon graduates by paying 50 percent of the 
wages. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
Defector Trend: More Female Defectors; No Longer Looking for 
Food but Better Life with Freedom 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
¶11.  (SBU) The number of female defectors exceeded males in 
2002 (625 females to 513 males), almost doubled in 2003 (813 
to 468), and more than tripled after that (1,533 to 485 in 
2006; 1,975 to 569 in 2007; and 2,197 to 612 in 2008).  Asked 
why so many more female defectors arrived in South Korea than 
male defectors, Hanawon Director Ko explained that women were 
able to live in hiding better and longer in China, and when 
caught, escaped more easily from the authorities. 
Trafficking was not unusual in the ethnic-Korean Chinese 
concentrated areas because many women had already left these 
regions to make a better living in the ROK.  North Korean 
females filled a large vacuum in the marriage pool for 
ethnic-Korean Chinese males, Ko said. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) In addition to a surge of female defectors, Ko 
noted a shift toward differing motivations for defectors 
starting a few years ago, in contrast to ten years ago when 
defectors escaped primarily to find food.  Since a few years 
ago, defector groups arrived in larger numbers and most left 
North Korea to seek a better, freer life in the ROK.  Many 
also arranged, and raised funds for, remaining family members 
in North Korea to defect.  Ko said that recent arrivals were 
politically better informed and eager to engage in 
discussions about the future of KJI and North Korea. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
Defector Views: Life in China Easier than in the ROK; North 
Korea as an Infected Wound 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶13.  (SBU) During a roundtable discussion over lunch, five 
Hanawon trainees, all women in their 30s and early 40s with 
family members and children in China or North Korea, shared 
their thoughts with the Ambassador, whom they said they felt 
familiar with from seeing her on television speaking Korean. 
Most women had spent significant amounts of time in China 
before reaching the ROK, and noted that in many ways adapting 
to China, with a level of development more similar to the 
DPRK, was easier than adjusting to the fast-paced, 
competitive life of the ROK.  Several trainees added that if 
there were no danger of repatriation to the DPRK by Chinese 
authorities, they would have preferred to stay in China.  One 
said only half-jokingly that life was easier in China because 
people could smoke and spit anywhere they wanted, just like 
in North Korea.  Others hoped for a day that North Korea 
would become more like China, allowing people to keep what 
they earn. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The top priority for the trainees was employment, 
so that they could save money, pay brokers and bring family 
members out of North Korea.  They were in contact with their 
children in China and North Korea by phone.  When asked, the 
trainees spoke of hopes to become a nursery teacher, business 
student, hair dresser, fashion designer and driver, some 
through Hanawon employment training. 
 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Hanawon trainees who left North Korea between 2004 
and 2007 said that they left North Korea not because of lack 
of food, but for a better future because "there is no future 
under Kim Jong-il."  They described North Korea as an 
infected internal wound about to burst where "anything is 
possible with money."  Hanawon residents kept up with North 
Korean news through TV and other sources and believed that 
access to internet would undercut the regime the fastest. 
Most had heard about KJI's children and other aspects of his 
private life for the first time after their arrival in South 
Korea, as such topics were prohibited in North Korea. 
 
 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Four high school students who currently enrolled 
in Hangyerae used to study medicine at Kim Il-sung 
University.  Ko interpreted this as a sign that problems 
within North Korea are far more severe than anticipated.  A 
graduate of Kim Il-Sung University and a Hangyerae teacher, 
Ko Seun-ah (protect), said separately that more students are 
now coming from southern provinces in North Korea and 
belonged to a higher socio-economic class. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Another sign of ailing North Korea was a sharp 
rise in the price of rice which had increased from NKW 700 
per kg at the time of her departure in 2005 to NKW 3,000 in 
¶2008.  Even at such a high price, nothing was available to 
buy, Ko Seun-ah explained.  According to regular North Korea 
travelers from the diplomatic and NGO groups in Seoul, 1 kg 
of rice is sold for NKW 5,000 and NKW 5,500 when grain is 
available in the black market. 
 
¶18.  (SBU) At a separate event at Hangyerae School, about 30 
high school students participated in a discussion  with the 
Ambassador where, in addition to asking about U.S. views on 
Korean reunification and Kim Jong Il, they showed much 
interest in her experience as a Korean-speaking woman 
diplomat, and in opportunities to study in the United States. 
 The students demonstrated a high-level of political interest 
and were keen to hear about opportunities to travel and/or 
study in the United States. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶19. (SBU) The ROKG continues to provide generous financial 
and institutional support for defectors, as evidenced by 
Hanawon and Hangyereh, despite a considerable downsizing last 
year of the Ministry of Unification, which manages most of 
the defector-related programs.  Still resettlement is not 
easy.  It was clear that most of those we spoke to find life 
after Hanawon competitive and challenging, and sometimes long 
for the safe zone of Hanawon or life in China before arrival 
in South Korea, where they feel alienated.  As the ROKG 
continues to gear up for more defectors in coming years, 
genuine integration of former North Korean residents in South 
Korea will require more confidence by North Korean defectors 
and less social discrimination by South Korean brethren. 
Above all, real integration will require time. 
STEPHENS