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Seoul, July 18 (IANS) The number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea reached 65 in the April-June period, nearly doubling from 34 three months earlier, in an apparent rise after China eased its strict Covid-19 restrictions, government data revealed on Tuesday.
After escaping the North, 18 men and 47 women reached South Korea in the second quarter, bringing the total number of the North's defectors to 33,981, according to data from Seoul's Unification Ministry.
The latest data showed the total number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea in the first half came in at 99, up nearly fivefold from 19 in the same period last year, reports Yonhap News Agency.
"This seems to result from how movement (restrictions) within China and abroad have eased," a Ministry official told reporters.
While the number of defectors who entered the South from a third country was overwhelmingly higher, there were still "a certain" number of defectors who arrived here directly from the North, the official said.
In May, a group of North Koreans crossed the de facto inter-Korean sea border aboard a fishing boat.
During interagency questioning, the defectors said they fled the North to escape Pyongyang's rigid Covid restrictions.
The number of North Korean defectors coming to the South has sharply dwindled in recent years due largely to Pyongyang's tight border controls over the Covid pandemic.
The figure, which hovered at over 3,000 before and after 2010, more than halved to 1,167 in 2019 and plummeted to 59 in 2022, according to government data.
