| North Korean defectors | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 탈북자 |
| Hanja | 脫北者 |
| Revised Romanization | Talbukja |
| McCune–Reischauer | T'albukcha |
A number of individuals have defected from North Korea. Since the division of Korea after World War II and the end of the Korean War (1950–1953), many people have defected from North Korea, mainly for political, ideological, religious and economic reasons. The first famous defection occurred shortly after the signing of the armistice ending the Korean War, on September 21, 1953, when then 21-year-old No Kum-Sok, a senior lieutenant in the North Korean air force, flew his MiG-15 to the South and is associated with Operation Moolah. Considered an intelligence bonanza, since this fighter plane was then the best the Communist bloc had, No was awarded the then immense sum of $100,000 and the right to reside in the United States. An offer to return the MiG was ignored, and the aircraft is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio.
Many more have defected since then, and many are caught during the attempted defection. The usual strategy is to cross the border into Jilin and Liaoning provinces in Northeast China before fleeing to a third country, because the People's Republic of China, a close ally of Pyongyang, refuses to grant North Korean defectors refugee status and considers them illegal economic migrants. If the defectors are caught in China, they are repatriated back to North Korea to face years of punishment or even death in North Korean prison camps.
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Different terms are in official and unofficial use to refer to this group of refugees. On 9 January 2005, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced the use of saeteomin (새터민, lit. "people of new land") instead of talbukja (“people who fled the North”), a term about which North Korean officials expressed displeasure.[1] A newer term is bukhanitalchumin (hangul: 북한이탈주민 hanja: 北韓離脫住民), which has the more forceful meaning of, "residents who renounced North Korea".[2]
China has between 20,000−30,000 North Korean refugees. There was a continued decline in the number of North Korean refugees in China, with around 11,000 in the country at year’s end,[3][4] mostly in the northeast, making them the largest population outside of North Korea; these are not typically considered to be members of the ethnic Korean community, and the Chinese census does not count them as such. Some North Korean refugees who are unable to obtain transport to South Korea instead marry ethnic Koreans in China and settle there, blending into the community; however, they are still subject to deportation if discovered by the authorities. Those who have found 'escape brokers', mostly try to enter the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. In recent years, however, the Chinese government has tightened the security and increased the number of police outside the consulate. So, today there are new ways of getting into South Korea. One of them is the route to the Mongolian border; another is the route to southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. These new ways have been created because those countries welcome the North Korean defectors.[5]
According to a source from 2005, "60 to 70% of the defectors [in China] are women, 70 to 80% of whom are victims of human trafficking."[6] Most of the clients of North Korean women are Chinese citizens of Korean descent, largely elderly bachelors.[7] Violent abuse starts in apartments near the border, from where the women are then moved to cities further away to work as sex slaves. When Chinese authorities arrest these North Korean slaves, they repatriate them. North Korean authorities keep such repatriates in penal labour colonies (and/or execute them), execute any of the Chinese-fathered babies "to protect North Korean pure blood" and force abortions on all pregnant repatriates not executed.[6] China refuses to grant refugee status to North Korean defectors, and considers them illegal economic migrants. The Chinese authorities arrest and deport hundreds of defectors back into North Korea each week, sometimes in mass immigration sweeps. Chinese citizens caught aiding defectors face fines and imprisonment.
There have been three cases of North Korean defectors escaping directly to Japan, one in 1987,[8] one on June 2, 2007, when a family of four North Koreans made it to the coast of Aomori Prefecture, where they were found by the police and Japan Coast Guard, after a six-day boat ride.[9] The four said they wanted to leave for South Korea, but after initial agreement between the governments of South Korea and Japan,[10] one of the defectors was found to possess one gram of amphetamine. The police said it will not prosecute the man for possession but he is currently under investigation.[11] The latest defectors in 2011 were found by the Japan Coast Guard on a wooden boat carrying nine people, three men, three women and three boys. The group had been sailing for five days towards South Korea but drifted towards the Noto Peninsula.[12]
Japan has resettled about 140 ethnic Koreans who managed to return to Japan after initially migrating to North Korea under the 1959-1984 mass "repatriation" project of ethnic Koreans from Japan. This supposed humanitarian project, supported by Chongryon and conducted by the Japanese and North Korean Red Crosses, involved the resettlement of around 90,000 volunteers (mostly originating from South Korea) in the DPRK, which was hailed as "paradise on earth" by Chongryon.[13]
A much shorter route than the standard China-Laos-Thailand route is to head straight to Mongolia, whose government tries to maintain good relations with both North and South Korea but is sympathetic to North Korean refugees. North Korean refugees who are caught in Mongolia are deported to South Korea, effectively granting them a free air ticket.[14] However, this route is not used as much because it requires navigating the unforgiving terrain of the Gobi Desert.
The Philippines has in the past been used as a transit point for North Korean refugees, often arriving from China and then being sent on to South Korea.[15] There may also be an unknown number of North Korean refugees that have blended into the South Korean community in the Philippines.[16]
A study by Kyung Hee University estimated that roughly 10,000 North Koreans live in the Russian Far East; many are escapees from North Korean work camps there.[17] Both South Korean diplomatic missions and local ethnic Koreans are reluctant to provide them with any assistance; it is believed that North Korea ordered the assassination of South Korean consul Choi Duk-gun in 1996 as well as two private citizens in 1995, in response to their contact with the refugees. As of 1999, there were estimated to be only between 100 and 500 North Korean refugees in the area.[18]
In 1962, the government of South Korea introduced the "Special law on the protection of defectors from the North" which, after revision in 1978, remained effective until 1993. According to the law, every defector was eligible for a generous aid package. After their arrival in the South, defectors would receive an allowance. The size of this allowance depended on the category to which the particular defector belonged (there were three such categories). The category was determined by the defector’s political and intelligence value. Apart from this allowance, defectors who delivered especially valuable intelligence or equipment were given large additional rewards. Prior to 1997 the payments had been fixed in gold bullion, not in South Korean won—in attempts to counter ingrained distrust about the reliability of paper money.
The state provided some defectors with apartments, and all those who wished to study were granted the right to enter a university of his or her choice. Military officers were allowed to continue their service in the South Korean military where they were given the same rank that they had held in the North Korean army. For a period of time after their arrival defectors were also provided with personal bodyguards.
Recently, South Korea has passed controversial new measures intended to slow the flow of asylum seekers as it has become worried that a growing number of North Koreans crossing the Amnok and Duman rivers into China will soon seek refuge in the South.
The regulations tighten defector screening processes and slash the amount of money given to each refugee from ₩28,000,000 to ₩10,000,000. South Korean officials say the new rules are intended to prevent ethnic Koreans living in China from entering the South, as well as stop North Koreans with criminal records from gaining entry.
Hanawon opened on July 8, 1999, and is the government resettlement center for North Korean defectors. It is nestled in the South Korean countryside, in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, about an hour south of Seoul. Originally built to accommodate around 200 people for a 3 month resettlement program, the government extended the center in 2002 to double its original size and cut the program from three months to two months because of the increase in the number of North Korean defectors per year. In 2004, to mark the fifth anniversary of the program, a second facility opened south of Seoul. Hanawon can now feed, house, and train 400 people at one time.
At Hanawon, the training curriculum is focused on three main goals: easing the socioeconomic and psychological anxiety of North Korean defectors; overcoming the barriers of cultural heterogeneity; and offering practical training for earning a livelihood in the South.
Hanawon imposes heavy restrictions on the travel of North Korean defectors because of security concerns. In addition, security is tight with barbed wire, security guards, and cameras. The threat of kidnap or physical attacks against individual defectors by North Korean agents is ever-present.
Upon completion of the Hanawon program, defectors find their own homes with a government subsidy. When Hanawon first opened North Koreans were originally offered ₩36 million per person to resettle with ₩540,000 monthly afterward. Now they receive ₩20 million to resettle and ₩320,000 monthly.
Approximate total number of defectors from 1953 to 2005: 14,000
| Year | Defectors |
|---|---|
| pre 1989 | 607 |
| 1990 | 9 |
| 1991 | 9 |
| 1992 | 8 |
| 1993 | 8 |
| 1994 | 52 |
| 1995 | 41 |
| 1996 | 56 |
| 1997 | 85 |
| 1998 | 71 |
| 1999 | 148 |
| 2000 | 312 |
| 2001 | 583 |
| 2002 | 1,140 |
| 2003 | 1,281 |
| 2004 | 1,894 |
| 2005 | 1,383 |
| 2006 | 2,018 |
| 2007 | 2,544 |
| 2008 | 2,809 |
| 2009 | 2,952 |
Source: Ministry of Unification, South Korea
Thailand is usually the final destination of North Koreans escaping through China. While North Koreans are not given refugee status and are officially classified as illegal immigrants, the Thai government deports them to South Korea after they have served their prison sentences for illegal entry. Many North Koreans will in fact surrender themselves to the Thai police as soon as they cross the border into Thailand.[19]
On May 5, 2006, unnamed North Koreans were granted refugee status by the United States, the first time the U.S. accepted refugees from there since President George W. Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act in October 2004. The group, which arrived from an unnamed Southeast Asian nation, included four women who said that they had been the victim of forced marriages. Since this first group of refugees, the US was reported to having admitted approximately 50 more North Korean refugees.
As of June 2010, there are a reported 99 North Korean refugees living in the United States.[20]
Until 2004, Vietnam was described as the "preferred Southeast Asian escape route" for North Korean defectors, largely due to its less mountainous terrain. Though Vietnam remains an officially communist country and maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea, growing South Korean investment in Vietnam has prompted Hanoi to quietly permit the transit of North Korean refugees to Seoul. The increased South Korean presence in the country also proved a magnet for defectors; four of the biggest defector safehouses in Vietnam were run by South Korean expatriates, and many defectors indicated that they chose to try to cross the border from China into Vietnam precisely because they had heard about such safehouses.[21] In July 2004, 468 North Korean refugees were airlifted to South Korea in the single largest mass defection; Vietnam initially tried to keep their role in the airlift secret, and in advance of the deal, even anonymous sources in the South Korean government would only tell reporters that the defectors came from "an unidentified Asian country".[22] Following the airlift, Vietnam tightened border controls and deported several safehouse operators.[21]
North Korean asylum seekers and defectors are rising in numbers in Canada since 2006.[23] Radio Free Asia reports that in 2007 alone, over 100 asylum applications were submitted, and that North Korean refugees have come from China or elsewhere with the help of Canadian missionaries and NGOs. The rapid increase in asylum applications to Canada is due to the limited options, especially when receiving asylum is becoming more difficult. On February 2, 2011 Prime Minister Stephen Harper met Ms. Hye Sook Kim, a North Korean defector and also received advice from Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, "Canada can persuade China, among others, not to repatriate the North Korean refugees back to North Korea but, instead, let them go to South Korea and other countries, including Canada."[24]
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