A South Korean Christian association is seeking to build refugee towns in Mongolia for North Koreans fleeing their country, the association said Thursday.
The Christian Council of Korea, a conservative organization of 44,000 churches nationwide, held an inauguration ceremony in central Seoul, announcing its campaign, named "Save North Korea," to help North Koreans leave their country and settle in refugee towns it plans to build in neighboring regions as early as this year. The towns are projected to be in Mongolia and Russia, it said.
"We will be no more sitting back and staring at the suppression of North Koreans' human rights," said Kim Sang-chul, former Seoul mayor and head of the council's North Korea aid team.
"We will stage an extensive campaign for the human rights and freedom of religion of North Koreans," he said.
Most North Korean defectors come to South Korea via China, which shares a long land border with North Korea. Defections across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border are rare.
The number of North Korean defectors to South Korea has been rising in recent years, reaching 1,281 last year alone, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.
More than 4,000 North Koreans have come to the South since the Korean War ended in 1953.
The group said it aims to help hundreds of North Koreans stay in the to-be-built refuge towns this year. The campaign will be funded by donations, it said, adding that it plans to get pledges of donations from over 10,000 churches and 30,000 individuals of up to 30,000 won (US$25) each per year.
The organizers said, however, that they have to map out more detailed plans for their projects.
They said the campaign came into being on March 1, South Korea's Independence Movement Day, when a group of pastors nationwide pledged to spread Christianity and improve living conditions in North Korea.
The council, which has 120,000 members, is one of the two representative South Korean protestant church unions along with the more progressive National Council of Churches in Korea.