The government Thursday granted Korean citizenship to a former Burundian sportsman.
Buzingo Donatien first arrived in South Korea to participate in the 2003 Summer Universiade held in the southeastern city of Daegu. The 32-year-old runner, who had lost his parents in a civil war in Burundi, sought political asylum and was granted refugee status in 2005.
After living in South Korea as a refugee for five years, Donatien applied for Korean citizenship this year and passed the naturalization test, the Justice Ministry said. He currently works for an auto parts company in South Gyeongsang Province, while studying at a Korean university at night.
"I'm happy that now I can peacefully live in Korea," Donatien told Yonhap by phone.
"People have helped me in many ways, so I want to contribute to other people. I also want to stay focused on my work, studying and running marathons," he said in fluent Korean.
Donatien has won eight full marathons over the last five years and holds a Korean amateur record of 2 hours, 18 minutes and 39 seconds, which he set in 2007, the ministry said.
He became the second refugee to be naturalized since South Korea joined a U.N. convention on the status of refugees in 1992, following an Ethiopian man in March.
Donatien was one of the 20 foreigners who were to be given a certificate of South Korean citizenship at a ceremony in Seoul on Thursday.
According to ministry data, a yearly average of 15,000 foreigners have been naturalized since 2007, with 13,906 given Korean citizenship as of the end of last month.