In Thursday's plenary session, lawmakers passed a bill to help defectors from North Korea.
It'll extend the deadline for them to apply for resettlement benefits when they arrive here... from one year to three.
Those who didn't come straight from North Korea but lived abroad for ten years or more, will now be eligible for housing subsidies, like other refugees,... and priority for public housing.
The same will apply to those who missed the three-year window to apply.
The one-time cash subsidy paid to single refugees when they arrive will be raised from 6-thousand U.S. dollars to more than 7-thousand.
This year, as of November, the number of North Koreans who defected to the South was 1-thousand-and-42... three people fewer than the same time last year.