South Korea has joined the U.N. refugee agency's club of key donors that pay more than US$20 million a year, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday, underscoring the country's increasing humanitarian activities.

The ministry said that as of this year, a total of 15 countries are in the donor group of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The group includes the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Britain, Norway and the European Union.

As part of efforts to strengthen cooperation between Seoul and the UNHCR, the two sides held the first policy consultation meeting on Dec. 2 in Geneva, Switzerland. 

At the meeting, Seoul called for the U.N. agency's support to prevent North Korean defectors from being repatriated to the North. (Yonhap)