North Korean defector leaves Russia for US

A North Korean defector has left Russia for the United States, the latest refugee to be accepted under a 2004 human rights law, South Korean activist Rev. Chun Ki-won said Wednesday.

Han Dong Man, a 42-year-old former lumberjack, was expected to arrive in Los Angeles, California, late Tuesday, the told The Associated Press.

Han went to Russia in 1993 under a state-sanctioned program, but he escaped the North's control in 1998 and spent almost a decade there before securing refugee status from the United Nations in 2007, Chun said.

North Korea sends lumberjacks to Russia as way of bringing much-needed hard currency into the closed country.

The latest refugee raised to 62 the total number of North Koreans accepted into the U.S. since 2004, Chun said.

[AP]