A group of writers who defected from North Korea gained membership on Friday to PEN International, a London-based worldwide association of writers pursuing freedom of expression, the group said.

PEN International approved the establishment of a PEN center for writers who fled North Korea during the 78th PEN International Congress held in the South Korean tourist city of Gyeongju, southeast of Seoul.

It became the 144th center of PEN International.

"We will make efforts to encourage more writing critical of the North Korean regime and teach novice writers," Jang Hae-sung, head of the PEN center for North Korean writers, said.

"We also want to let the world know that writers are heavily restricted in their freedom of expression in North Korea," said Jang who worked as a writer for North Korea's state broadcaster Korean Central Television (KCTV) before defection to South Korea.

The congress was to wrap up its weeklong schedule Saturday after adopting a declaration calling for the proper use of languages in the digital environment.

About 700 authors, including two former Nobel Literature Prize winners Wole Soyinka and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, attended the congress under the theme of "Literature, Media, and Human Rights."

Participants also decided to issue a statement calling for the immediate release of hundreds of writers who are imprisoned around the world for what they wrote.

Established in 1921 in London as an international association of writers, PEN International has since hosted the congress in different cities around the world each year. This was the third time for the event to be held in South Korea. The two previous events were held in Seoul in 1970 and 1988. (Yonhap News)