ANSEONG, South Korea — On a sprawling campus hidden in farmland here, about 300 North Koreans are learning that, no, actually, it was not the South that started the Korean War.

And, yes, America is an ally, their re-education goes, before broaching the A B C's of capitalism, human rights and democracy. Field trips focus on how to apply for a job or use an automated teller machine. Women are shown the finer points of home decorating; men, the basic skills to fix the home boiler.

Soon after landing in South Korea, all North Korean defectors come here to the South Korean government's main resettlement center, called Hanawon, or to an annex, for a three-month crash course on life south of the demilitarized zone.

It is the first step in a long and often bewildering process of adapting to a South Korean society that has regarded them, over time, as cold war enemies, long-lost cousins or pitiable objects of curiosity. Born and reared in one of the most isolated nations, they are taught everything from the theoretical to the mundane before plunging headlong into the real world.