[Yonhap News Photo]
Due to tight border control and surveillance, the number of North Korean defectors who escaped their hometowns to settle in South Korea this year has declined nearly 13 percent from a year ago, according to government data.
In the first eight months of this year, some 780 North Koreans have defected to South Korea, down 12.7 percent from a year earlier, a unification ministry report published on Tuesday showed.
At the end of August, 30,992 North Korean defectors have arrived in South Korea, many of them coming through China. Women accounted for 71 percent and a majority of female defectors were in their 20s and 30s, according to the ministry report.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stepped up a crackdown on defections. However, more North Korean elites, including diplomats, have deserted their country in search of freedom.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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