Published: Less than 10 min ago
1 of 3 Photo: Dita Alangkara/AP/TT
The number of North Koreans fleeing the dictatorship is drastically decreasing. Strict border control, zero tolerance for covid and higher flight costs make it next to impossible to set off.
Only 67 North Korean defectors managed to make it to South Korea in 2022.
It is the second year in a row that the number of defectors has fallen into double digits, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which began keeping statistics in 1998.
The wave of refugees from North Korea to South Korea was at its greatest around 2006 with upwards of 3,000 defectors per year. After dictator Kim Jong-Un took power in 2011, the noose was tightened and the number fell.
– But people fled anyway. The cost of fleeing was much lower than now and there were still active intermediaries in China, says Casey Lartigue, vice president of the organization Freedom Speakers International, FSI, in Seoul, to TT.
FSI helps North Korean defectors learn English and tell their story to the outside world. The organization is one of several in South Korea that help North Koreans enter the new country.
Refugee wave
Communist North Korea was founded with Soviet help in 1948 after Korea was divided into an American and a Soviet occupation zone after World War II. North Korea’s then leader Kim Il-Sung, grandfather of Kim Jong-Un, wanted to “liberate” South Korea from the US and in 1950 attacked the south, after which a civil war raged for three years. It cost nearly four million human lives.
No peace agreement was ever reached. Armistice still prevails, monitored by, among others, Sweden at a “demilitarized zone” DMZ, between the countries. The border is often described as the most guarded in the world and is considered to be basically impossible to cross with one’s life intact.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Eastern Bloc’s trade with North Korea declined. The country suffered from energy shortages and severe periods of famine. South Korea began to see a wave of refugees from North Korea.
Price: One million kroner
The escape from North Korea usually goes across the border river into China, via a third country where the defectors are helped at a South Korean embassy.
But covid-19 has brought all flight activity to a screeching halt. North Korea’s zero tolerance for the coronavirus has been manifested through the “shoot to kill” tactic. The number of border guards has been increased. They are not punished for accepting bribes, but are compensated for people they catch, says Casey Lartigue.
In addition, the situation of North Korean defectors in transit in China has become increasingly uncertain. The risk of being captured by the police and sent back is, according to several aid organizations, very high.
Overall, it has become very difficult for middlemen to continue their business at the border. The cost of escaping has skyrocketed.
– Today it costs the equivalent of one million kroner to escape from North Korea to South Korea. Nobody can afford that, says Lartigue.
– The defectors who arrived in South Korea had fled North Korea before the covid pandemic. Many stayed in Russia before coming to South Korea.
Contact choked
In South Korea, the reduced number of refugees is noticeable at Hanawon, the state’s re-education facilities for defectors, managed by the Ministry of Reunification.
Participation in such programs is mandatory for North Koreans who have entered South Korea. In the heavily monitored facilities, the defectors are allowed to live and study for three months and, among other things, learn how to use payment cards, take care of their finances and live in the democracy of South Korea.
At the peak of the refugee wave to South Korea, Hanawon housed thousands of North Korean defectors.
Now the facilities are basically empty.
– As long as North Korea can afford to block everyone who wants in and out, it will be difficult to escape, says Lartigue.
– Our organization is not affected by this, but the defectors we have come to know over the years are sad.
Facts
North Korea
North Korea is the world’s most closed country, a dictatorship ruled by Kim Jong-Un, son of the totalitarian leader Kim Jong-Il and grandson of the “father of the country” Kim Il-Sung. Society is militarized and the people are strictly monitored.
The official juche ideology in North Korea celebrates “national independence” and “self-reliance”. In practice, it has meant isolationism, oppression and starvation for the approximately 25 million inhabitants.
Arbitrary arrests of regime critics, non-existent legal security and torture and ill-treatment of prisoners in the country’s prisons and prison camps are extensive. Data also indicate that the country practices public executions for crimes such as theft of state property and hoarding of food, in addition to serious crimes.
North Korea is at the same time a nuclear weapon state and a militarized society that spends large resources on its defense. According to UN resolutions, the country may not launch ballistic missiles or conduct nuclear weapons tests. Repeated violations of these resolutions have resulted in the country being subjected to extensive sanctions.
Sources: Landguiden/UI, NE and others
Read moreFacts
North Korean defectors in South Korea
A total of 33,882 North Korean defectors have fled to South Korea, according to statistics that began to be kept in 1998.
72 percent of them are women.
The majority of North Koreans who have arrived are between 20 and 39 years old.
Source: Ministry of Unification of South Korea
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