There are many institutions in South Korea and other countries that promote the rescue or saving of North Korean refugees. Since we all know how uninhabitable a place North Korea can be and how repressive its leadership is, helping North Koreans defect South is without a doubt an honorable endeavor.

Yet it appears that efforts to improve the living conditions of North Koreans already in South Korea receive disproportionately more attention than one much larger group of Koreans: those going about their lives in Pyongyang, Chongjin, or Hamhung, without immediate ambitions to leave their country.