South Korean President Lee Jae-myung vowed to strengthen support for North Korean defectors and emphasized their right to fully integrate into ROK society on Monday, delivering a message to mark the second annual North Korean Defectors’ Day.

“We will go beyond basic settlement support and protection to ensure that you can live, grow and thrive as members of your local communities,” he said in a congratulatory speech read on his behalf by Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung during a ceremony at COEX in Seoul. 

Lee also stated that escapees have experienced the pain of national division more directly and vividly