Only 63 North Korean defectors entered South Korea throughout all of 2021, Seoul’s unification ministry announced on Thursday, the fewest ever recorded in a calendar year and a dramatic decline from over 1,000 defectors annually prior to the pandemic.

A ministry official explained that the precipitous decrease in the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea is likely the result of the DPRK’s extreme COVID-19 border controls, as well as travel restrictions in so-called transit countries.

The 2021 figure represents a 72.4% drop from the 229 North Koreans who defected to the South in 2020 and a 94% decline from