Korean language video education for children from North Korean defector families fell short of target number due to low number of applications

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = It was revealed on the 4th that the 'Korean language video education' project of the North and South Korea Hana Foundation (North Korea Defector Support Foundation) for children of North Korean defector families failed to reach the target number of participants even though the application deadline was extended twice due to a low application rate.

According to data received from the foundation by Kim Dae-sik, a member of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the number of applicants for Korean language video training was counted as 68.

Korean language video education is a project where professional instructors with Korean language teacher qualifications provide one-on-one customized education to North Korean youth, including children born in third countries of North Korean defector families.

It was planned with the intention of providing help as there are many cases in which these teenagers who came to Korea are discriminated against in daily life or misunderstood as being involved in voice phishing crimes due to difficulties in communicating in Korean.

Originally, when the foundation announced the project in July, it planned to accept applications by July 20, select a total of 180 people, and provide training starting in August.

If the number of applicants exceeds the target, priority will be given to recipients of basic livelihood security, the next lower class, or single-parent families, and a standard of applying priority will be given to higher grades.

However, when there were not enough applicants, the foundation relaxed the application criteria and extended the deadline to August 7.

Afterwards, due to low number of applications, the deadline was postponed again to August 25, but the final number of applicants was less than half of the target of 180.

Regarding this, a foundation official explained to Yonhap News, "180 is not the number we expected to secure, but rather the maximum number of people that can be supported, set in consideration of business operating conditions."

He continued, "As this is the first project to be implemented this year, there was a lack of initial publicity and awareness of the project, and the fact that (North Korean youth defectors) do not have enough experience with a non-face-to-face educational environment and feel burdened in participating in education is the main reason why the number of applicants did not reach the planned scale," he said. "We plan to continuously recruit additional participants in connection with related organizations and local adaptation centers."

The selection of a business operator to provide video education is also being delayed.

In the first bidding (July 28-August 12), only one company participated and was rejected, and as a result of the re-announcement (August 13-25), two companies participated. The final operator has not yet been revealed.

Rep. Kim Dae-sik said, "If we set the recruitment scale first and then change the qualification criteria late or delay the selection of business operators, people who really need training may miss out on the opportunity to apply," and added, "We will check whether the demand survey, recruitment method, and procurement schedule were appropriate during the government audit, and check whether the originally planned learning effect can be secured during the remaining training period."