Over 2,800 N. Korean defectors arrive in South in 2008

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SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- A total of 2,809 North Koreans arrived in South Korea
during the past year, bringing the cumulative number of North Korean defectors
here to over 15,000, the Unification Ministry said Monday.
The 2008 figure is up 10 percent from a year earlier. The increase was 26 percent
and 46 percent in 2007 and 2006, respectively, according to ministry data.
China tightened control of its border with North Korea during and around the time
of the Summer Olympics, prompting a slowdown of the North Korean influx here in
the latter half of the year.
Most defectors arrive in South Korea after escaping into China and then to a
third country in Southeast Asia. Beijing defines North Korean defectors as
illegal migrants seeking food or involved in smuggling, and says it is bound by
official policy to repatriate them to the North.
"The slowdown was possibly affected by China's domestic and foreign policy among
many other reasons," a Unification Ministry official said, requesting anonymity.
During the first half of 2008, about 1,700 North Korean defectors entered the
South, up 42 percent from the same period the year earlier. The number fell to
around 1,100 during the second half.
A total of 15,057 North Korean defectors have arrived in the South since the end
of the 1950-53 Korean War, a large number of which came starting in the late
1990s, according to ministry data.
In 1993, a total of 34 North Korean defectors settled in South Korea. The figure
shot up to 2,018 in 2006 and 2,544 in 2007.
Seoul's Lee Myung-bak government has sought to tackle North Korea's human rights
issues more directly and bring in more defectors.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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