WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ The United States will grant six North Korean citizens permanent resident rights for the fiscal year 2007 that begins this October, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.
The North Koreans are among the 50,000 winners of the 2007 Diversity Visa Lottery, it said in a press release posted on its Internet site.
The diversity lottery is conducted under the terms of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available 50,000 to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
About 5.5 million people applied for permanent resident visas at the end of last year.
Also among the winners for 2007 are 80 applicants from Afghanistan, 80 from Iraq, 1,361 Iranians and 40 Syrian nationals.
Washington's decision to grant the status to the North Koreans was thought to be made separately from the issue of tens of North Koreans who sought political asylum recently in the United States.
