SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- The annual number of North Korean defectors seeking refuge in South Korea, which had been dropping since 2009, took an upturn in the first half of this year, government data showed Sunday.

A total of 717 defectors came to live in South Korea in the first half, slightly up from 710 a year ago, according to a tally by the Ministry of Unification.

North Korea defectors arriving in the South had increased annually to reach 2,929 in 2009, after topping 1,000 for the first time in 2001. But the sum has since dropped drastically with last year's figure half the level of 2011's 2,706.

But it was not until the second quarter of this year that the number took an upturn, according to the ministry.

"The number of defectors entering South Korea typically declines during winter season and rises again when weather gets warmer," a ministry official said.

Some analysts say the recent rise comes as the Lao government's forcible deportation of nine young North Korean defectors to their totalitarian homeland in May prompted a massive arrival of other defectors who were hiding in third countries.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled their homeland in recent decades to escape political oppression and chronic poverty. Many of them travel through China, Thailand, Laos and other Southeast Asian countries before resettling in the South, now home to more than 25,000 North Korean defectors, according to government data.

sshim@yna.co.kr

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