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Asia-pacific
Seoul trains 'intellectual troops'
South Korea hopes trained defectors will help reshape North in its image if regime collapses.
Last Modified: 25 Jun 2011 05:14

Since the Korean War ended in 1953, 20,000 North Koreans have defected from the North to the South.

Some of them have been hand-picked for a leadership academy.

The partly government-funded programme aims to train 1,000 so-called "intellectual troops" who, in the event of a collapse of the Pyongyang regime, would go home and help rebuild North Korea based on the South's model.

Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from Seoul, the South Korean capital.
Source:
Al Jazeera
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