By Seo Soo-min
Staff Reporter

New buildings opened on Friday at the state-funded shelter in Hanawon to meet an increasing stream of North Koreans defecting to the South to seek new lives.

A ceremony celebrating the end of the 15-month construction of new facilities, including two three-story buildings, was held in the morning at Ansong, Kyonggi Province, 86 kilometers south of Seoul.

The extended Hanawon facilities, where the defectors spend two months learning the basics needed to live in the capitalist South, is now capable of housing upwards of 300 people at a given time, or about 2,000 people per year. A separate facility exclusively for women in Songnam, Kyonggi Province can accommodate up to 100 at once.

Hanawon, meaning ``institute for oneness’’ in Korean, has struggled as the number of North Koreans defectors, coming mostly via China, increased over the recent years.

An average of 100 defectors per month have arrived this year. The year’s total was 1,047 as of Nov. 11. The total number of North Koreans defectors residing here is 3,927.

The increase is attributed mostly to the fact that more North Koreans are entering South Korean and other embassies in Beijing to seek a way to the South. If otherwise spotted by authorities on Chinese soil, defectors are deported back to North Korea.

``Hanawon is a site for a historic experiment preparing for the day the South and North will live as a family when the unification comes,’’ Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said in his congratulatory speech.

He went on to promise full support for the government over the facility.

The government officially welcomes all North Korean defectors and provides education and housing, but the costs incurred have emerged as a problem.

Civic groups have demanded that the government take a more proactive stance in getting the defectors out of China and helping them here. The government is wedged between them and China, which firmly stands by North Korea on the issue.