This is the conclusion to a four-part series on Russia’s Sakhalin Korean community and its relations with North Korea. To see the previous installments click here, here and here. 

The deportation of 48 protesters in January 1977 was arguably the last significant event in the history of the Sakhalin Korean community that had any relation to North Korea. For the subsequent decades, North Korea has remained marginal in their history. Nonetheless, it still makes sense to talk about fate of this group in the late Soviet and post-Soviet years.

In 1979, a new Soviet law regarding citizenship was