The Korea Local Administration Review

An inflow of “Saetumin” which means the people who escaped from NorthKorea has been increasing since the 1990s. Despite the economical and socialsupport from Korean government, most South Korean people still don’t concernabout those people much and those seceders from North Korea hardlyparticipate in or assimilate into local community. They are usually sent to localgovernment after they take some formal education. This present paper analyzedthe local administration system which takes charge of those Saetumin. Theresult is that most of administration has been done by the central governmentand the role of local government has been much restricted. However, it isimportant to accept them as local people as well as members of the society. Soit is required that the local government has to set some policies for them morepositively. This is an acceptance from the point of view of local community, andan assimilation or social adaptation from the point of view of Saetumin. It is notto be done by the local government alone. The local government should makegovernance system with various social organizations and volunteer groups.Governance system for helping adapt Saetumin to the local community withvarious social groups is one of the most important and urgent tasks in the localadministration.
□ Keywords: the socially disadvantaged, local government system, saetumin