A Seoul-based civic organization is to push forward with a plan to build a special district for North Korean defectors in South Korea in a bid to help them better adjust to their new life in the South.

The Doori-Hana missionary group Monday announced the plan for building the "unification town" on a 500 thousand pyeong or 165-hectare plot in Hwasung south of Seoul.

The group's spokesman said the facilities would accommodate some one hundred North Korean defector families who would farm as well as operate small-sized factories within the community for North Korean escapees.

The official said if the project is pushed forward according to plans, some 20 to 30 families will move into the pilot area of the district early next year.

He said that among some of the dignitaries taking part in the project are Hwang Jang-yup, a former high-ranking North Korean official who defected to the South in the early 1997 and former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Young-duk.