On July 24, 2024, NK News posted an article about the arrival of 105 North Korean escapees in South Korea during the first half of 2024. The figure this year is similar to that of last year, reflecting a continued struggle for North Koreans to leave North Korea since COVID-19 pandemic. Unique Kim from NKDB was invited to comment on this figure:

Like last year, most of the new arrivals likely did not recently escape North Korea, Unique Kim of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) told NK News. ‘Amid the increasing challenges of escaping from North Korea since 2020, this quarter’s figures represent North Korean escapees who had previously left North Korea and resided in a third country, such as China, for significant time before arriving in South Korea,’ she said.

‘Many [of these women] have experienced human trafficking in transit,’ said Kim of NKDB, one of the few organizations allowed to interview defectors shortly after their arrival in South Korea.  She added that this ‘underscores the need for third countries to adopt protections for this vulnerable group, as well as the need for South Korea to provide greater psychosocial support in resettlement.’

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