37 N. Korean Refugees Settle in US
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Thirty-seven North Korean defectors have been granted refugee status in the United States since legislation on human rights for North Korean refugees was enacted in 2004, a report said Wednesday.
``The number of North Koreans who have been settled in the United States as refugees since the country made the North Korea Human Rights Act in 2004 was 37 as of the end of last year,’’ Radio Free Asia reported, quoting the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.
The institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide.
The figure breaks down into nine in 2006, 22 in 2007 and six in 2008, according to the report.
Washington has not set a quota for accepting North Korean refugees but is reluctant to accept a massive number of them due to security reasons, including the possibility of infiltration by North Korean spies, it said.