Radio Free Asia (RFA) says Belgium has granted a North Korean defector refugee status, now the ninth to become a legal resident in the country since 1993.

RFA said Brussels, which grants one out of three applicants refugee status, admitted the defector in June, after he had escaped North Korea in 2001 and lived in China for six years.

Belgium grants refugees, once recognized, a stipend of roughly 800 dollars a month. Germany is said to have some 300 North Korean defectors, the largest number in Europe.