Sakhalin Koreans Continue to Return to South Korea

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. December 3. VOSTOK-MEDIA – More than 160 Sakhalin Koreans will move to South Korea to take up permanent residence there.

According to the Korean Residents Association on Sakhalin, the repatriates are mostly immigrants from the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces of Korea during the late 1930s and early 1940s. At the time, the southern half of Sakhalin Island, then known as Karafuto Prefecture, was under the control of the Empire of Japan; the Japanese government recruited and forced Korean laborers into service and shipped them to Karafuto to fill labor shortages resulting from World War II.

According to the head of the Korean Residents Association on Sakhalin Park Hae Yong, the first 40 Koreans will fly to Seoul on December 3. The rest of them will take humanitarian flights on December 4, 17, 18.

A considerable part of the Sakhalin Koreans, who are presently residing in Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Alma-Ata, will take the direct flights to Seoul from their cities of residence.

The repatriation is financed by Red Cross organizations of Japan and South Korea. Boarding houses and veteran care centers for expatriates were built in various cities of South Korea, where the elderly Koreans moved in and feel a sense of peace about being back home again.

Since 2000, about 3,500 Sakhalin Koreans have moved to South Korea for a permanent residence. In 2010 the repatriation programme will be resumed.