The discovery of the skeletal remains of a North Korean defector at her home in Seoul last month has prompted renewed focus on the condition of migrants from the North in South Korea. The body of the woman, who was in her 40s and had escaped North Korea in 2002, was severely decomposed. She had been wearing winter clothes, leading authorities to suspect she had passed away nearly a year earlier. In response, South Korea’s unification ministry said it will review its crisis management system for North Korean defectors, who have long been known to face hardships in South Korean society. In January, a North Korean man who had previously fled to the South crossed back north across the border, in an unusual case of a defector tasting life on both sides of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and choosing the repressive, isolated North. In 2019, the bodies of another defector and her 6-year-old son were discovered approximately two months after they had died, seemingly from starvation. Cases such as these are a sign of the struggles that many North Korean defectors face, including deep loneliness, a sense of alienation, and difficulty integrating. Defectors are unlikely to have family or friends in the South and may grow distraught by the notion that they will likely never again see their loved ones. North Koreans in the South also typically face stigma and discrimination, tend to have much higher rates of unemployment, and lack the social capital necessary to thrive in their new fast-paced, hypercapitalist home. Defectors attend classes on life in South Korea and are eligible for financial support, housing, and health care, among other assistance, although some research suggests these benefits may actually contribute to backlash from South Koreans. Notably, the woman whose body was discovered last month was considered relatively successful. She had worked with an organization that assists defectors and had been covered by media outlets as a model resettlement case. The South Korean government normally monitors resettled defectors, but in 2019 she had reportedly asked to be removed from the check-in list. Compared to other humanitarian migration flows, the number of people crossing the DMZ is tiny. Fewer than 34,000 Northerners have defected since 1998, and numbers have slowed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic; just 63 North Koreans made the arduous and dangerous journey last year, according to government data. Still, the persistent integration challenges point to the difficult divides that have grown between the two Koreas. Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected] | 
