No N. Korean defectors admitted to U.S. last year: State Department data

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- No refugees from North Korea were admitted to the United States last year for the first time since the U.S. began accepting defectors from the communist nation as refugees in 2006, State Department data has showed.

The last time a North Korean refugee was admitted to the U.S. was in November 2018, when a defector settled in the state of Michigan, according to the refugee admissions data compiled by the department's bureau of population, refugees and migration.

Six North Korean refugees were admitted into the U.S. in 2018 and only one in 2017, after President Donald Trump came into office. The highest number of North Korean defectors admitted to the U.S. was in 2008, when 38 were admitted.

A total of 218 North Korean refugees have entered the U.S. since the adoption of the North Korean Human Rights Act by the U.S. Congress. In 2006, the U.S. accepted nine North Koreans as refugees for the first time under the law.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
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