Forty North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea between July and September this year, according to unification ministry data, bringing the total number of arrivals in the first three quarters of 2023 to 139.

The total is three times higher than the same period last year, when only 40 escapees made it to the South amid heightened border security and COVID-19 restrictions in China and the DPRK.

But the unification ministry said in a press release that “many factors” affect defector numbers, concluding that it is still “difficult” to speak of a trend.

Hanna Song of the Database Center