A total of 34 North Korean defectors reached South Korea in the first quarter of this year, Seoul’s unification ministry announced on Tuesday, the most in a three-month period since 2020 but still far fewer than before the pandemic.

Of the arrivals, 29 were women and five men, according to the ministry. The total marks a threefold increase from 11 in the first quarter of 2022 and more than half the number of defectors who arrived in all of last year.

But despite the increase, the number of defectors remained a fraction of pre-COVID-19 levels. More than 1,000 defectors made