The government will implement measures to expand support for stateless Koryoin, or descendants of ethnic Koreans of the former Soviet Union, who now reside in South Korea. 

Commissioner Lee Sang-deok of the Overseas Koreans Agency unveiled the plan on Tuesday, saying that the government will help the stateless ethnic Koreans attain legal status in the nation. 

The Overseas Koreans Agency plans to conduct a fact-finding survey on the stateless Koryoin population in the country for that aim for the first time in 18 years since 2007 when such efforts were suspended.  

To prevent ethnic Koreans from the Russian island of Sakhalin from being separated from their families, the government says it also plans to allow them to resettle in South Korea with their family members. 

Koreans' relocation to the Russian Far East started in the late 19th century, and the Koryoin population subsequently increased in the early 1900s as many of them fled Japanese colonization in 1910. 

Koryoin, meaning people of Korea, have since dispersed throughout the former Soviet Union, including many forced to relocate to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.