The South Korean government is set to clarify the status of the “Laos defection route” by which a significant number of North Korean citizens seek to escape their homeland to South Korea and elsewhere each year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now working to schedule a meeting between Minister Yun Byung Se and his Laotian counterpart, Thongloun Sisoulith, on the sidelines of the upcoming FEALAC (Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation) meeting in Bali, Indonesia on June 13th and 14th.

Yun plans to ask his Laotian interlocutors to deal with all future cases of defection from a humanitarian standpoint. In addition, he will point out the dangers of repatriated defectors being seriously punished upon their return, especially those without access to resources such as children.

Meanwhile, Kim Jae Won, the head of a South Korea-Laos parliamentary committee is to lead a special delegation to Laos tomorrow, where the team will spend five days meeting Laotian officials and members of the South Korean diplomatic corps in the country to discuss the repatriation case and future policy governing similar issues.