South Korea today announced it will build a new resettlement centre to help a growing stream of refugees from communist North Korea. The unification ministry said Seoul, which currently operates a mandatory three-month resettlement course at the Hanawon centre, will build the second facility by the end of 2012. Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo said the number of North Korean defectors keeps rising and the current Hanawon facility is on the verge of being overcrowded. More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled their impoverished and hunger-stricken homeland since the 1950-53 war, the vast majority in recent years. South Korea sends each new arrival on a three-month assimilation and training course at Hanawon, south of Seoul, and provides financial and housing support afterwards.