SEOUL – Fewer social obligations in the North translates into more defections to the South among women, statistics show.

However, with most of their work experience coming from illegal marketplaces, these women face a different set of challenges when they arrive.

About 68.7 percent of North Koreans to have ever defected to South Korea are women, a four-month survey conducted by the North Korean Refugees Foundation showed.

The survey, made public earlier this year, showed that the number of North Korean defectors entering the South has increased three-fold since the 1990s, and female defectors actually make up more than 70