{"id":5895,"date":"2022-08-01T18:25:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T09:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=5895"},"modified":"2022-08-03T12:37:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T03:37:53","slug":"nk-defector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2022\/08\/recommendations\/nk-defector\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cSpecial Feature\uff1e Escaping N.Korea\u2026History and Present State(1) Kim Jong Un\u2019s war of extermination leads to the end of the defector era\u3000ISHIMARU Jiro"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A family that defected North Korea\u2019s Chongjin in 1997. Chul-hun, the family\u2019s son, died after being shot by a Chinese border guard while the family tried to escape through Mongolia in 2002. This photograph was taken in January 2001 by ISHIMARU Jiro while the family lived in hiding in a village in Heilongjiang.<\/p><\/div>\n

The era in which people can defect from North Korea has almost ended.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the strong feeling I\u2019ve had as I have watched the situation over the past several years. It is not just the impact of COVID-19. While I will explain more about this later in the article, the defector era is in its twilight because the Kim Jong-un regime has ordered his authorities to implement a \u201czero defector\u201d policy. This policy has led to an unprecedented level of security along the country\u2019s border with China.<\/p>\n

The highpoint in the number of defectors entering South Korea was 2,914 in 2009. While defections fell dramatically since Kim Jong-un gained power in 2012, there were at least 1,000 people who made it to South Korea up until 2019. Then, in 2020, the number of defections fell to 229, before falling further to just two percent of that 2009 highpoint to 63 people in 2021. There were only 11 defectors who entered South Korea from January to March 2022. (All of the previous figures are from South Korea\u2019s Ministry of Unification, as are those used below). Moreover, most of the defectors who made it to South Korea in the past couple of years are those who had resided for long periods of time in China. There were few cases in which the defectors had come more or less straight from North Korea.<\/p>\n

One female reporting partner living in North Korea\u2019s northern region lamented to me in March of this year, \u201cI wish I had just bitten the bullet and escaped to South Korea three years ago. Now it\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A newly installed barbed wire fence on the Chinese side of the border across the Tumen River near Hoeryong, North Hamgyung Province. Taken in September 2012 by Nam Jung-hak (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25c6 Social disorder caused defections in the 1990s<\/h2>\n

While the dictionary definition of a \u201cdefector\u201d from North Korea is a person who \u201cescaped North Korean rule following the Korean War Armistice and settled domestically (South Korea) or abroad,\u201d most defectors actually left North Korea after 1995. In July 1994, as the North Korean economy reached crisis point, Kim Il-sung \u2013 the country\u2019s \u201cliving god\u201d \u2013 died. Kim\u2019s death led to the start of paralysis in the regime\u2019s ability to maintain control, and North Korean society showed signs of crisis. Ultimately, the country\u2019s food distribution system fell apart, leading to a massive famine. While there are different accounts on how many people died, I believe that more than two million people perished by the year 2000. Many people ran away to China to escape hunger and because they could no longer see a future in their country. This was the start of the defector issue, a problem that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

I first went on a reporting trip to the China-North Korean border in July 1993. Since then, I have made around 100 such trips to report on conditions in North Korea. My most recent trip to the border region was in September 2019. The flow of people from North Korea to China reached its apex in 1997 to 1998. At the time, I was observing the agricultural villages of Chinese-Koreans along the Tumen and Yalu rivers, and was taken aback by dozens of North Koreans crossing over the border during just one night into a small village of around 1,000 people. I believe that, as of the year 2000, there were probably about one to two million North Koreans who had crossed into China. (There were a lot of people who crossed over multiple times or went back and forth over the border). Most of these people, however, returned to North Korea because they wanted to give their loved ones in North Korea money and food. The minority that abandoned life in North Korea became refugees and settled in China (around 10% of the total people who originally crossed over, I reckon). Ultimately, most of these people sought out a place to settle down for good and made it their goal to reach South Korea.<\/p>\n

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The moment Kim Han-mi and her family dashed into the Japanese consulate in Shenyang in May 2002. (Kyodo News)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25c6 Defector routes opened by activist groups<\/h2>\n

The total number of defectors who entered South Korea by 1998 was only 947 people; however, that figure exploded after that, and there are now 33,826 defectors in South Korea as of March 2022. There is a ten-year gap between the highpoint of border crossers into China and the apex of defectors who entered South Korea. The North Koreans who gathered in China were all illegal residents of that country, which meant they had almost no way to make it to South Korea.<\/p>\n

In the 2000s, a new defection route that offered protection by the South Korean government was opened by activist groups. This route had defectors walk through the Gobi Desert and into Mongolian territory. This route disappeared after a couple years due to efforts by the Chinese authorities, however. There were then activist groups that took radical steps to facilitate defections: defectors would dash into foreign consulates in Shenyang and Beijing to demand right-of-passage to South Korea. Apart from the so-called \u201cKim Han-mi Family Incident\u201d of May 2002, when five people dashed into the Japanese consulate in Shenyang, other defectors tried similar attempts at Japanese-run schools.<\/p>\n

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Kim Han-mi and her mother Ri Song-hee, in a photograph taken by ISHIMARU Jiro a year before they dashed into the Japanese consulate in Shenyang. (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

These defection routes also collapsed after Chinese authorities fortified the areas around foreign consulates. Since that time, the only real route available has been through Southeast Asia. Defectors depart from Kunming in China\u2019s Yunnan Province to make it to Thailand through Laos, Myanmar or Vietnam. This is almost the only available route left for defectors wanting to go to South Korea.<\/p>\n

The China-North Korea border in the 1990s was full of holes. People could cross over into China just by handing over a few hundred Chinese yuan as bribes to North Korea\u2019s border patrol. There was also a Chinese-Korean community in China that sympathized with the defectors and protected them. (The defectors migrated to South Korea, Japan, and major cities in China, but this no longer happens).<\/p>\n

In particular, North Korean defector women could obtain a safe haven by \u201cgetting married\u201d to Chinese-Korean men living in agricultural villages. There was, in essence, a place for North Korean defectors to hide.<\/p>\n

However, North Korean authorities believed that the massive number of border crossers was a major crisis, and intensified controls on movement in the country and security along the border with China. China also strengthened its border security following cases of robbery, murders, smuggling of illicit drugs, and human smuggling perpetrated by the border crossers from North Korea. Starting in 2005, there was a noticeable fall in the number of border crossers.
\n<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo one who helps people illegally crossing the border will be left alone.\u201d Following the dramatic rise in defector-refugees, these signs were put up on roads in areas along the border. (Taken by ISHIMARU Jiro in China\u2019s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in August 1997)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25c6 The dramatic rise in people being \u201ccalled\u201d by their relatives to defect<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, there was a dramatic rise in South Korea-based defectors using their financial resources to secure the defections of family members. Brokers in China would take the relatives all the way to Kunming, where other brokers would take them to Thailand via Laos or other countries. Crossing over the border to China had become more difficult, yet there has been a rise in defectors who entered South Korea. This was possible because of a drastic rise in the number of defectors who entered South Korea from China.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to mention here about another route taken by defectors. Apart from those who enter South Korea directly from North Korea on fishing boats, there are defectors who apply for asylum while legally residing in a foreign country. I reckon, however, that only around 1-2% of all defectors actually do this. These asylum seekers include workers, trading company employees, and diplomats deployed in China and Russia. There have even been cases where soldiers have crossed the MDL to make into South Korea. In November 2017, a North Korean soldier working in the JSA succeeded in defecting despite being fired upon. Based on my own research, however, only nine of these cases have occurred since Kim Jong Un gained power in 2012. (To be continued in the next installment >><\/a> )<\/p>\n

ISHIMARU Jiro<\/strong>
\nDirector of ASIAPRESS\u2019s Osaka Office, Journalist<\/p>\n

Born in Osaka in 1962, Ishimaru has made three trips into North Korea and 100 trips to the China-North Korea border region since 1993. He has interviewed over 1,000 North Koreans and maintains and develops a reporting network inside the country. His works include \u201cNorth Korean Refugees,\u201d \u201cKodansha,\u201d \u201cJun Returns to North Korea,\u201d and the \u201cNHK Hi-Vision Special Feature.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Map of North Korea ( ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

fa-arrow-circle-right<\/span><\/i><\/span>\uff1cSpecial Feature\uff1e Escaping N.Korea\u2026History and Present State(2)<\/strong> Defectors have become a threat to the regime\u2026Around 200 live in Japan\u3000ISHIMARU Jiro<\/a><\/p>\n

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