ABSTRACT
The number of North Koreans entering South Korea has been more than 2,000 annually since 2006, with the exception of 2012, compared to the total of 607 until 1989 (Figure 9.1). The number of North Koreans living in South Korea is 25,649 as of September 2013. 1 This figure is marginal, given South Korea’s 50 million population, or even North Korea’s 25 million. 2 What is significant and noteworthy as a case study is the evolutionary nature and emerging patterns of this particular group of people’s mobility that has been developed over the past two decades. At first, emerging from the mid-1990s, North Koreans began escaping from the country’s famine and environmental disasters. There were numerous reports about trafficking in women and human rights violations against North Koreans in China. Christian missionaries went to ‘save’ them in underground churches in China, and they collaborated with smugglers who could transfer them down to the southern neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam and even Myanmar. Some went northwest to Mongolia through the Gobi Desert. From there, they found refuge in South Korean embassies or consulates, which would then fly them to Incheon, South Korea. The Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea), in its constitution, defines its territory as the entire Korean peninsula and therefore implies North Koreans are under its protection too, although both Koreas have been separate UN member states since 1991. North Koreans automatically become South Korean citizens after an investigation by the National Intelligence Service and the resettlement programme by the Ministry of Unification. This 6,000-mile circular migration route from the North through China and Southeast Asia to the South has put many lives and their security in danger. In South Korea, North Koreans still face numerous difficulties in adjusting to the highly competitive capitalist society, where their foreign language and computer skills are far below that of average South Koreans. Many North Koreans experience discrimination against their origin as North Koreans, particularly in schools and workplaces. They also suffer from post-traumatic symptoms affected by their perilous journeys. Some decide to move to Western countries, where better lives are expected. The issue is that they seek refugee status ‘again’. The number of North Koreans entering South Korea https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315848723/32a332ff-d8e9-460e-8870-2ab7d6d6b9d7/content/fig9_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Ministry of Unification, North Korean Defectors Statistics (Seoul: MOU, 2012)
