Some 3,000 N. Koreans Defect to S. Korea in 2009
The number of North Koreans who fled to South Korea in 2009 is known to be close to three-thousand.
A Ministry of Unification official said more than 2,200 women and almost 680 men from North Korea entered South Korea in 2009, totaling more than 2,950 in a preliminary tally.
The official added that this makes the cumulative number of North Korean escapees total approximately 18-thousand, which is almost certain to surpass 20-thousand in 2010.
There are some supplementary information that says the number of North Korean defectors is decreasing:
The number of North Korean defectors hiding in China is estimated to have shrunken in recent years to almost one tenth the level seen in the late 1990’s, a U.S. demographer said Thursday.
The assessment is a controversial but important factor in shedding light on the conditions of those North Koreans who live in China. The defectors live under the constant fear of deportation because their country considers defection a capital crime.
Activists and relief groups say tens of thousands of North Korean defectors live in China, but Dr. Courtland Robinson at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health said the number may have dropped to between 6,000 and 16,000 as of 2007.
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[Yonhap, 2010-01-07 , Sam Kim]
