Number of NK defectors entering S. Korea more than triples in Jan.

Kim Il-hyeok, a North Korean defector, speaks during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Thursday, Aug. 17, at United Nations headquarters. AP-Yonhap

The number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea more than tripled in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier amid North Korea's border reopening after years of COVID-19 restrictions, government data showed Tuesday.

After escaping the North, 139 North Koreans reached the South in the January-September period, sharply up from 42 from the same period of last year, according to Seoul's unification ministry. In the third quarter, 40 defectors ― three men and 37 women ― came to the South.

The tally is the latest reminder that a steady stream of North Koreans continues to defect to South Korea to avoid chronic food shortages and harsh political oppression.

The number of incoming North Korean defectors began rising this year after it sharply dwindled in recent years due largely to China's strict COVID-19 restrictions and North Korea's tight border shutdowns.

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"In 2021 and 2022, the number of the North's defectors coming to South Korea was exceptionally low due to the North's border closure and China's COVID-19 restriction on people's movement," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

He remained cautious about whether the figure could recover to pre-pandemic levels this year.

The yearly number of incoming North Koreans, which hovered above 1,000 in the years before 2019, plummeted to 229 in 2020, followed by 63 in 2021 and 67 in 2022, the data showed.

The number of such escapees could reach around 170 this year, rising 2.5 times from a year ago, Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency. (Yonhap)