After the end of hostilities between the two countries in 1953, more than 34,000 North Korean refugees have moved to South Korea. However, for some years now, human rights organizations have observed that some of them are trying to return to their country of origin. In total, From 2010 to 2022, 31 cases of this type have been detected.
An example of these desertions is that of a 30-year-old North Korean who escaped to South Korea in 2011, but eventually, at the beginning of October of this year, he stole a bus to try to escape to the border between both countries. .
The man was invery difficult economic conditions” and he missed his family, which he left behind in North Korea. After being detected, he was detained in the south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and will now be tried for violating national security regulations. “The defector was in very difficult economic conditions as a construction worker and was missing his family, who still lives in the North. After being arrested, he will be charged with violating national security laws,” South Korean police explained.
Information like this opens the debate on how is it possible that citizens of the strictest country in the world (along with Eritrea) prefer to return to their lands despite the restrictive rules and censorship of their nation, and what are the reasons behind such movements.
A report from the Hana Foundation, in charge of resettlement programs for North Koreans in South Korea, stated that At least 20% of North Korean defectors have suicidal thoughts due to post-traumatic stress after fleeing their country and the feeling of guilt, which is combined with the loneliness and discrimination that many of them suffer.
