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President Park Geun-hye speaks during a meeting with overseas advisors to the National Unification Advisory Council, at Cheong Wa Dae on Oct. 13. She said, ‘In an era when 30,000 North Korean refugees live in the South, we will reinforce our policies to ensure that they can successfully adapt to our society and pursue their dreams and happiness.’

On Oct. 13, President Park Geun-hye said, “The North Korean regime is driving the lives of its citizens into hell through its reign of terror. Our government will open all paths to North Koreans enduring such hardships, so that they may pursue their dreams and find happiness in the South.”

The president was speaking during a meeting with a group of advisors to the National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC), adding that, “The Northern regime has reached the point where it cannot survive without relying on abnormal methods of control.”

“A growing number of defectors, including members of the elite and front-line soldiers, are fleeing the North due to poverty and repression in the dark, isolated state,” she said. “North Korean senior officers, soldiers and regular citizens stand along the same path together, a path leading toward a just and peaceful Korean Peninsula.”

The chief executive said North Korean refugees in the South are a trial-run for unification, stating that they are a “crucial human resource” that would play a major role in the process of national unification.

“In an era when 30,000 North Korean refugees live in the South, we will reinforce our policies to ensure that they can successfully adapt to our society and pursue their dreams and happiness,” she said.

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President Park Geun-hye meets with overseas advisors to the National Unification Advisory Council at Cheong Wa Dae on Oct. 13.

“It’s important to recognize that leaving North Koreans unattended will only result in the strengthening of a tyrannical and belligerent Northern regime. We need to join efforts to correct the North’s human rights violations,” said the president. She promised that her government would continue to deliver information from the outside world to North Korean citizens, to create awareness of their claim to basic freedoms and human rights.

“North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear weapons test at the beginning of the year, followed by a fifth test just last month. The countless provocations, through missile blasts in this year alone, demonstrate the North’s fanatical obsession with its weapons programs. This is an indication that the Northern regime will not give up the development of its nuclear weapons, and will likely carry out more nuclear tests and missile launches in the future.”

“The North Korean regime now threatens to use its nuclear weapons on the South,” the president said. “This is proof that the North’s nuclear weapons program is a verifiable threat, a threat that directly targets the Republic of Korea and its people,” she said.

“It is for this reason that our government had to make the decision to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) on the Korean Peninsula, to safeguard our citizens against the North’s nuclear threats. Moving forward, I will not compromise on decisions involving the protection of our country and its citizens, regardless of any difficulties that may arrive as I carry out my duties.”

Finally, the president vowed to “enforce sanctions and apply pressure from the international community, and to make North Korea realize that it cannot escape isolation and economic shutdown without giving up its nuclear weapons program.”

By Wi Tack-whan, Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Cheong Wa Dae
whan23@korea.kr