More than 1,500 North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea last year despite Pyongyang’s crackdown on illegal migration, official said Monday.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry said 1,516 northerners settled in South Korea in 2013, up slightly from 1,502 in 2012, with women accounting for 76 per cent of the total, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The ministry said South Korea is now home to 26,124 North Koreans.
North Koreans cross the border into China to avoid chronic food shortages and harsh political oppression, it said.
Pyongyang has strengthened its patrol along the country’s porous border with China to arrest those who try to flee, according to South Korean officials.