Why are there few cases of asylum via the South Korean navy, which monitors the North-South border?
(Fund builder: Korean columnist)
Currently, in South Korea, the truth about the North Korean fisherman forced repatriation incident that occurred in November 2019 is about to be revealed. Two North Korean fishermen who are said to have killed 16 people fled North Korea on a fishing boat, but the Moon Jae-in administration forcibly returned them to North Korea on the grounds that they were causing a serious incident.
However, the Yoon Seol-yeol administration confirmed the defector’s intention to defect, and released a video of the defector being blindfolded and handed over to North Korea at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). And there are increasing voices in South Korea questioning the judgment of the Moon Jae-in administration.
As of 2022, some 35,000 North Koreans have fled North Korea to live in South Korea since the armistice of the Korean War on July 27, 1953. Most of the defectors left North Korea after the 1990s. The 1990s was a time when North Korea became internationally isolated, suffered disasters such as the Great Flood (1995), and even starved to death.
As a result, the defection of North Korean residents began in earnest, with an average of tens to hundreds defecting to South Korea every year. Since 2001, more than 1,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea, showing an explosive increase.
A total of 32,425 North Koreans defected to South Korea over 19 years, starting with 1,043 in 2001 and ending with 1,047 in 2019. An average of 1,706 people defected each year, peaking in 2009 with 2,914 people defecting.
Recently, however, the aftermath of the border blockade caused by the novel coronavirus infection has made it extremely difficult to escape. As a result, the number of asylum seekers to South Korea plummeted to 229 in 2020 and 63 in 2021. As of July 2022, there are only 11 people.
How did the approximately 35,000 North Koreans who have defected so far arrived in South Korea?
There are very few cases of defectors who defected while working at North Korean restaurants in China or Southeast Asia, or defected while staying abroad as a North Korean diplomat or student. There are only a few cases of defectors crossing the armistice line on the Korean Peninsula.
Most are via third countries. Among them, the course that follows “North Korea → China → Laos (Myanmar) → Thailand → South Korea” is representative. In some cases, it passes through Mongolia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.