Kang Na-ra’s mother defected before her – she does not want to say why – but their life together in South Korea was not what she’d hoped. They’re given financial support and accommodation, and access to health care and employment services.īut even so, life for defectors is often a struggle.īefore Kang Na-ra – no relation to Kang Chun-hyuk – defected in 2014 as a teenager, she thought her life in South Korea would mirror the K-dramas she watched in secret in the city of Chongjin.īut South Korea was a far cry from the romantic world she’d seen on screen. Defectors undergo a compulsory, 12-week education session to help them adjust to life in their new home. Once they arrive in South Korea, there are measures in place to support them. The most common reason given – at 23% – was that people didn’t like being controlled or monitored by the North Korean regime. “It wasn’t worth going to school, so me and my classmates stole food like corn or potatoes,” he said.Īccording to a survey of 3,000 people released this year by the North Korean Refugees Foundation, food shortages are one of the most common motivations for defection, with nearly 22% saying that was why they had defected. Sometimes, his family would make a single portion of dry noodles into a meal that would feed him and his parents for a week. In North Korea, Kang remembers barely having enough food to survive. People gather before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in 2021 to mark the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death. Kang’s family made the trip in 1998 when he was 12 years old, before finally making it to South Korea a few years later. The vast majority, like defector Kang Chun-hyuk, flee over North Korea’s lengthy border with China. On very rare occasions, defectors – like the former gymnast – manage to escape through the heavily guarded demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. However, numbers have dwindled in recent years after Kim imposed even tougher border controls to prevent Covid inflows. Since 1998, more than 33,000 people have defected from North Korea to South Korea, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. So it isn’t hard to see why people may want to escape. Meanwhile, North Korea has become increasingly isolated, with citizens subject to widespread poverty and limited basic freedoms. Over subsequent decades, South Korea has modernized, becoming one of the world’s richest and most technologically developed countries. Since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, North and South Korea have been separated by an almost impenetrable border preventing anyone from crossing to the other side. The man’s case is rare – while more than 10,000 North Korean defectors have arrived in South Korea in the past decade, just 30 have returned home, where they face the prospect of being put into forced labor camps, according to official South Korean data.īut defectors and advocates say even if the man’s rationale for leaving South Korea is unclear, the fact that some North Korean defectors are willing to return to one of the world’s most politically isolated countries only highlights how challenging life can be in the South for North Koreans. Man who crossed from South Korea into North Korea presumed to be North Korean defector, Seoul officials say (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Carl Court/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images It is 250 kilometres long and 4 kilometres wide and is one of the most heavily militarised borders on earth. The Demilitarized Zone runs across the Korean Peninsula and was established following the Korean Armistice Agreement to serve as a buffer zone between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea. GOSEONG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 03: A military watchtower overlooks a fenced beach near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, on Februnear Goseong-gun, South Korea.
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