Number of North Korean defectors nearly triples in 2023, including ‘elite’ diplomats, South Korea says

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

The number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea nearly tripled in 2023 compared to the previous two years, authorities said Thursday – including a higher number of youth and members of the North Korean elite.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry recorded 196 defectors entering the country last year, it said in a briefing. More than half were in their 20s and 30s, and about 84% were women or girls, according to government data.

The total figure is just a fraction of pre-pandemic levels – 1,047 defectors arrived in 2019 – but it still marks a significant rise after a steep decline during the Covid-19 pandemic.

North Korea slammed its already tight borders shut in 2020, plunging the hermit nation into even greater isolation. Only 63 defectors entered South Korea in 2021, and 67 in 2022, according to government data.

The country began reopening somewhat in 2023, allowing citizens living abroad to return, and resuming international flights to certain countries including China and Russia. But the Unification Ministry said some North Koreans living overseas chose not to return – and instead fled to the South.

About 10 what it described as elite North Koreans were among those who defected last year, the highest number of this group since 2017, according to the ministry. They include “diplomats, other officials and students based overseas (who) were told to return last year as the pandemic situation entered a new phase,” a ministry official said.

“Many must have found it unacceptable after experiencing what (it) was like to live in the free world, knowing that the economic situation even worsened and internal controls strengthened in North Korea,” the official said.

The ministry said