The inaugural July commemoration is an inflection point and an opportunity for the Yoon government to advance both domestic and foreign policy priorities.
On July 14, South Korea will commemorate its inaugural North Korean Defectors’ Day. The new holiday, established by the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol earlier this year, marks the twenty-seventh anniversary of the North Korean Defectors Protection and Settlement Support Act, the legislation that governs South Korea’s policies toward the community of over 34,000 North Korean defectors who have resettled in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Despite some debate over the holiday’s timing and merits, it marks a noteworthy inflection point in South Korean policy.
Building on this momentum, the Yoon government should use the new holiday to advance policy toward the North Korea diaspora in three ways. It should lead global cooperation to address the challenges of transnational repression, enhance efforts to protect vulnerable North Koreans abroad through diplomacy targeted at key third-country governments, and directly engage the global diaspora network of North Korean émigrés in values-based cooperation with other liberal democracies.