30 Sakhalin Korean residents return home for good

Thirty Korean residents living on the Russian island of Sakhalin will return home to live here Saturday through Incheon International Airport by Sakhalin Air HZ-111 flight. Their homecoming has been arranged by the Korea National Red Cross (KNRC).

A KNRC official said that the returning Koreans are second-generation Koreans born in Sakhalin to their parents, who were forcibly taken to the island occupied by Japan before national liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. Twenty of them are couples and the remaining ten are unmarried.

KNRC plans to arrange the return of a total of 154 Korean residents, including the 30 who are coming back Saturday, on four different occasions this year, the official said.

Kim Young-Sik spear@donga.com