More than one month since the man crossed the demilitarized zone from South to North Korea, much of his life in both countries remains a mystery — as do his reasons for returning to the isolated nation ruled by Kim Jong Un.
South Korean media reported that the defector — who hasn’t been officially named, although fellow defectors say he was called Kim Woo-jeong in South Korea — was a former gymnast who largely kept to himself. According to South Korean police, he was a construction worker in his 30s who earned money by doing manual labor.
The man’s case is rare — while more than 10,000 North Korean defectors have arrived in South Korea in the past decade, just 30 have returned home, where they face the prospect of being put into forced labor camps, according to official South Korean data.
But defectors and advocates say even if the man’s rationale for leaving South Korea is unclear, the fact that some North Korean defectors are willing to return to one of the world’s most politically isolated countries only highlights how challenging life can be in the South for North Koreans.
Why people defect
Over subsequent decades, South Korea has modernized, becoming one of the world’s richest and most technologically developed countries. Meanwhile, North Korea has become increasingly isolated, with citizens subject to widespread poverty and limited basic freedoms.
So it isn’t hard to see why people may want to escape.
Since 1998, more than 33,000 people have defected from North Korea to South Korea, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. However, numbers have dwindled in recent years after Kim imposed even tougher border controls to prevent Covid inflows.
On very rare occasions, defectors — like the former gymnast — manage to escape through the heavily guarded demilitarized zone…
Source : cnn
