First increase in defectors under Kim Jong-un's regime

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Sun, September 24, 2023 | 03:41

Posted : 2016-08-02 18:12

Updated : 2016-08-02 18:34

Thirteen female North Korean defectors who worked at a North Korean restaurant in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in China entered South Korea on April 7, 2016.
/ Yonhap

By Hong Dam-young

The number of North Korean defectors is rising sharply, the first time under leader Kim Jong-un's regime.

Reportedly, 815 North Koreans defected to South Korea in the first seven months of this year, a 15.6 percent increase year-on-year, the Ministry of Unification said Tuesday.

The increase comes after the number dropped from 2,914 in 2009 to 1,276 last year. When Kim Jong-un came to power on his father Kim Jong-il's sudden death in 2011, the yearly number was 2,706.

Among recent defectors are those from the "upper-middle class." Experts said the notable increase, especially of those from that class, may indicate growing dissatisfaction with the regime due to social and political instability in North Korean society.

Yoon Yeo-sang, director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), said: "The ratio of North Korean defectors who say they were upper-middle class back home has been increasing for several years, according to the think tank's interviews with defectors."

The number of defectors among North Korean overseas workers has also increased. Heavy international economic sanctions against the state may be responsible, Yoon said.

North Korea has been sending workers overseas to earn hard currency for the struggling country. Those workers are usually loyal to the regime and more affluent than ordinary citizens. But the economic sanctions are pressuring the workers to send more hard currency home, which probably triggered them to defect, Yoon said.

"It's a sign that North Korea's dollar earnings are in bad shape," Yoon said.

In April, 13 North Korean workers at a restaurant in the Chinese eastern port city of Ningbo defected to South Korea. In June, three North Korean restaurant employees in Weinan, in China's Shaanxi Province, also defected.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on July 29 that eight North Korean female workers at a marine product-processing factory in Donggang, in China's Liaoning Province, had escaped the workplace at the end of June.

"More and more North Koreans are defecting in search of better lives and opportunities," a government official said. "Around 50 percent of the defectors still named the adverse economic situation as a reason for their escape, but ‘to have a better life' as a reason increased up to 20 percent."

The total number of North Koreans who have fled to South Korea is expected to exceed 30,000 by October or November this year.

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