A North Korean defector hired as a professor at a Korean state-run institute said Thursday she has donated her salary for this month to a government campaign aimed at raising funds for the massive costs Seoul is expected to shoulder in the event of unification with the North.
Chung Eun-chan, who was hired last month to teach at the Institute for Unification Education, said she donated the unspecified amount of money to help prepare for the two Koreas' eventual unification, which experts say could cost up to 249 trillion won ($216 billion) in its first year.
The Koreas have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War.
"I'm embarrassed, as it isn't a big deal," the 43-year-old female professor said in a phone call with Yonhap News Agency. "I'm happy to have been able to take part in a meaningful project for unification."
Last month, Chung became the second defector to work for the institute, which is affiliated with the Unification Ministry.
"After I was hired by the institute, I was so moved by (the South's) acceptance of defectors that I cried a lot on my own," she said. "As a defector, I will do all that I can for unification, with a sense of duty."
After arriving in the South about a decade ago, Chung had hoped to continue her career in education and promised herself she would offer her first salary as an educator to God and her second salary to a place in need.
Last month, she donated her first salary to a church in the eastern city of Daegu that helped her in her initial years of resettlement.
"After unification, I hope to help people from both sides overcome their differences," Chung said.
The state-run Korea Institute for National Unification has estimated the initial costs for the integration of the two Koreas could range from 55 trillion won to 249 trillion won.
That estimate, which is projected to cover the first year of integration, was based on the assumption the two neighbors could be unified two decades from now, according to the institute. (Yonhap)
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