Rep. Park Choong-kwon, a North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), has introduced a bill proposing educational support for children of defectors born in third countries.

Park submitted, Tuesday, a revision to the North Korean Defectors Protection and Settlement Support Act, which aims to allocate funding and provide consultations and supplementary lessons for children born in third countries to defectors.

Over 70 percent of North Korean defectors’ children are born in third countries, according to the state-run Korea Educational Development Institute. An increasing number 카지노사이트킹 of North Korean defectors who failed to reach South Korea are detained in China. As a result, an increasing number of defectors are giving birth to children in third countries.

Park said the children of defectors born in third countries are often overlooked by the South Korean welfare system and encounter difficulties in their education, primarily due to language barriers and limited access to educational materials.

Currently, only children who were born in North Korea and defected to South Korea are entitled to receive tuition and other financial support and get a chance for special admission to colleges. But North Korean defectors’ children born abroad have been excluded from such benefits.

“Every citizen of the Republic of Korea has the right to be protected by the state regardless of where they were born,” Park said in a statement. “We must open the door for defectors’ children born in third countries to receive protection of the laws and pursue their dreams.”