Officials said... South Korea and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have agreed to open UNHCR's Seoul office early this year.

A Foreign Ministry official said... a liason officer to be dispatched from the UNHCR Office will stay in the Seoul branch to deal with refugee matters.

UNHCR's Tokyo office has so far handled refugee problems related to Korea and one Korean employee hired by the U.N. agency has performed administrative duties in Seoul.

Ministry spokesman Lee Nam-soo said... they expect the opening of the Seoul office will help concert cooperation between the government and the UNHCR on international support for refugees.

The UNHCR is a sub-organization of the United Nations that was established in 1951 to deal with refugee problems. Korea joined the U.N. refugee convention in 1992.