By It appears the Chinese crackdown along their border with North Korea has some what mitigated the number of North Koreans successfully defecting to South Korea:
The Ministry of Unification said Monday that last year saw a 10-percent increase in the number of North Korean refugees in the South.
The number of North Korean refugees having crossed the border in 2008 to seek new lives in the South totaled 2,809, the ministry said.
The figure brought the total number of North Korean refugees living in South Korea to 15,057.
The increase rate of 2006, compared with that of the previous year, was 46 percent, and that of 2007 was 26 percent.
The ministry said the rate for last year was much lower than those of previous years because the Chinese government cracked down on “illegal” immigration before the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. [Korea Times]
I think the real news in this article is that despite the Chinese crackdown that saw over 150,000 soldiers moved on to the border, the number of defectors still increased significantly. Is this another sign of how bad things within North Korea are becoming if people knowing they have to avoid 150,000 Chinese soldiers and face increasingly severe penalties if they are caught, just to get to South Korea?
7:24 am on January 19th, 2009 1
This is a very misleading article.
To say 2,809 North Koreans refugees crossed the border in 2008 to seek new lives in the South makes it sound like they came across the DMZ – when in fact only a tiny fraction of the North Koreans entering South Korea enter that way.
And to suggest the Chinese gov’t cracking down on illegal immigration had anything to do with a decrease is pure BS. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have escaped out of North Korea. Most are in China – the others are in other Asian countries.
The ONLY thing stopping those who want to come to South Korea, but are not allowed to come, is the South Korean gov’t itself. It doesn’t have the resources to take in more than a few thousand a year.
Interestingly enough – the percentage of women allowed in is increasing year by year and women now make up a healthy majority. You don’t suppose this has anything to do with the shortage of young women in South Korea caused by all the aborted female fetuses in the 1980s do you? Speculation on my part….but you can’t help but wonder…..
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9:07 am on January 19th, 2009 2
It could just be a poorly written article (It is from the Korea Times, need I say more?),but I’m pretty sure the article didn’t mean to mislead people to think they crossed the DMZ.
I noticed the downplaying of the amount of defectors as well in the article. In my posting I emphasized the 10% increase while the Korea Times tried to portray this as a decrease.
Interesting point about the number of North Korean females being allowed in.
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