*** INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS

Number of North Korean Defectors to South Korea Tops 20,000

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The number of North Korean defectors to South Korea has surpassed 20,000, the Seoul government said on Nov. 15, attesting to the deepening plight of people in the socialist country.

   The 20,000th defector, a 41-year-old woman identified only by her surname, Kim, arrived in the South on Nov. 11, Unification Ministry officials said. She brought her two sons, aged 17 and 12, after economic hardships forced her to abandon North Korea and flee across the border with China.

   Defections from the North to the more affluent South accelerated after the North suffered a massive famine estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the mid-1990s.

   At least tens of thousands of North Koreans are believed to be living in hiding in China, which activists say has a repatriation pact in place with its neighboring ideological ally, North Korea.

   Many North Koreans have made the daunting trip to South Korea, often risking their lives in the process. North Korean guards and Chinese border police are prepared to send them back to the North upon capture.

   Defections to South Korea have slowed in the past year, as China reportedly stepped up its crackdown on North Koreans hiding on its soil. If sent back to the North, defectors face imprisonment, torture and even death.

   Since 2002, the number of female defectors to the South has been larger than that of men because women have greater liberty to travel within their country while most North Korean men have to report to authorities at work, according to observers.

   The influx of North Korean defectors into the country has increased dramatically, with roughly 300 in 2000, around 1,000 in 2002, more than 2,000 in 2006 and a record-breaking 2,927 last year. There have been 1,979 North Korean defectors this year as of Nov. 10.

   The total number of North Korean defectors was more than 1,000 in 1997. By 2007 it hit 10,000 and finally surpassed the 20,000 mark this month with Kim, who told South Korean authorities she left the impoverished North after suffering from a difficult life.

   North Korean defectors undergo three months of resettlement training before they become South Korean citizens. The Hanawon center helps the defectors adjust to life in South Korea and teaches them everything from taking the bus, using credit cards and, for women, putting on makeup.

   The government here pays them a total of 6 million won (about US$5,320) in cash for personal expenses and partially finances their housing in an effort to help them better assimilate. Upon exiting the center, the defectors are also given 12 million won for housing and an additional monthly stipend of 420,000 won.

   The ministry also established a new foundation on Sept. 27 to provide defectors with added financial support.

   Defectors receive additional cash incentives if they get jobs, but discrimination makes it difficult for them to work here, according to the ministry and scholars.

   Many defectors settle for low wages while working in jobs shunned by other South Koreans, even if they are employed. A large number of defectors also face health problems that arose when they were fleeing from North Korea.

   In September, a South Korean lawmaker said, citing foreign ministry data, that a growing number of defectors are seeking asylum in foreign countries by pretending to be fresh from the North because of their persisting woes in the South.

   "Discrimination is one main obstacle that makes it hard for the North Korean defectors to live here," said Choi Bong-dae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "There is still much we need to do to help them better adapt to the capitalist society here."

   In a meeting with students at a school for young defectors in Seoul, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek pledged to improve measures aimed at assisting their assimilation. "Do the best you can with the faith that you can achieve what you want as long as you dream big and make sincere efforts," he said.

   "The government and the South Korean people will become one to help the 20,000 defectors who have come into our lives," the unification minister told students on Nov. 15 during a visit to mark the milestone at Yeomyeong School. The school, located in Seoul, was established for defectors in 2004.

   Despite the assistance, many North Korean defectors often find it hard to adjust to life in the South, according to information provided by the Unification Ministry.

   The Unification Ministry has also been under fire for failing to help the defectors adapt to their new environment, as some of the defectors have applied to emigrate to a third country after living for a time in South Korea.

   According to information from the Unification Ministry, 13 percent of North Korean defectors are currently unemployed and 54 percent rely on government welfare, a stark difference from the 3.2 percent of South Koreans who are on welfare.

  
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S. Korea Demands Concession from N. Korea for Talks on Cross-border Tours

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea demanded on Nov. 11 that North Korea withdraw its freeze and seizure of South Korean tourism facilities at their joint mountain resort in the North before the sides can discuss reviving lucrative cross-border tours.

   Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said in a briefing that the demand was made earlier in the day in a message to the North, which had proposed holding government-level dialogue on Nov. 19 to discuss resuming South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang.

   "As long as the unjust measures remain in place, we believe the conditions are not ready for dialogue to take place," Lee said.

   Seoul's refusal to hold dialogue over the fate of the eastern resort came after nearly 200 families were reunited at Mount Kumgang earlier November in a rare moment of peace between the countries that remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

   The tours to the scenic mountain just north of the heavily armed border came to a halt after a Seoul woman allegedly trespassed into a restricted zone and was shot dead near the resort in 2008.

   North Korea maintains it has taken measures to shed light on the shooting and bolster safety, while the South has dismissed them as far short of satisfactory. In anger, the North in April seized or froze South Korean assets at Mount Kumgang, including a government-owned family reunion center, shops and a golf range.

   Considered a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, the tours had won the cash-strapped North millions of dollars each year before they came to a stop. The prospect of reopening them worsened after the South condemned the North in May for the sinking of its Cheonan warship. Pyongyang denies any involvement in the March 26 sinking that killed 46 sailors.

   In their latest round of Red Cross talks held in October, the North also demanded 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer from the South in return for agreeing to more routine reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

   The sides will negotiate the matter when their Red Cross officials meet again next week. The venue has yet to be fixed.

   South Korean officials have said the amount of aid the North demanded cannot be considered humanitarian as Pyongyang argues. Since a multinational investigation found the North responsible for the Cheonan sinking, Seoul has maintained that it will only provide assistance that it sees as "purely humanitarian."

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