This news is both encouraging and depressing at the same time:

Thirty-seven North Korean defectors have been granted refugee status in the United States since the country’s law to promote North Korean human rights was enacted in 2004, a U.S. radio station reported Wednesday.

"The number of North Koreans who have been settled in the United States as refugees since the country made the North Korea Human Rights Act in 2004 was 37 as of the end of last year," Radio Free Asia reported, quoting the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI). [Yonhap News]

It is good to see that some North Koreans getting to settle into the United States but the numbers so far are woefully to low.  The reasoning is supposed to be the threat of North Korean spies being allowed into America.  This reasoning seems absurd; what would one of these people spy on, prices at the local Wal-mart store?  South Korean spies worry me much more.  Does the name Robert Kim ring a bell to anyone?  The real reason I believe that not many refugees are being allowed into the US is simply because the State Department doesn’t want anything to offend Kim Jong-il that would impact the the Six Party Charade going on with North Korea. 

Like I said encouraging and depressing.