NKorean Defectors

"LandepNews"

NKorean Defectors

North Korea demanded on Wednesday that two of its citizens that were found on a small wooden boat in South Korean waters be returned. The demand comes a day after Japan sent to South Korea for settlement nine other North Korean found in the Japanese maritime territory.
The defections have intensified over the last few years, raising the number of people who left their country in order to find a better one in South Korea to 21,000 since 1953, when the civil war ended.
This kind of situation constitutes a reason for tension between the two countries, as South Korea accepts those who defect from the North and repatriates those who decide to go back.
The North Korean regime, on the other hand, accuses the South that it lures its citizens to the South and then keeps them against their will.
South Korean Unification Ministry in Seoul announced that the Red Cross from the North conveyed the message which was demanding the repatriation of the two North Korean men found south of the eastern Korean sea border earlier this week.
Authorities in Seoul replied that an investigation would be launched to determine whether these men were willing to defect or were just drifting south at the moment they were found by the coast guard. Their wishes would be honored after they express them, the spokeswoman for the Unification Ministry said.
North Korea and South Korea had an argument in June over defections, as Seoul refused to send back a group of nine people from the North, who made it clear that they had defected and wanted to stay in South Korea. Earlier this year, Seoul allowed four people who came with a group of 31 to remain in South Korea.
North Korea uses to punish the members of the family of those who defect, which is why the nine people who asked the Japanese authorities to send them to South Korea were wearing sunglasses and masks and hoods, so that they may not be recognized and their families wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of their escape.
Most of the people who leave North Korea in order to reach South Korea or any other place in the world cross the border with China, and from there they go in other directions.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans are believed to be hiding in China, though according to a bilateral treaty China is compelled to send them back home. 35 people were arrested by Chinese authorities last month and are expected to be deported back to North Korea, where severe punishment awaits them.
South Korean Foreign Minister said that a delegation from Seoul would arrive in China in an attempt to convince Beijing not to go through with the deportation plan.

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