In a recent trend, more and more North Korean defectors are attempting to escape the country by sea, rather than by land. This year alone, there have been six defection attempts via the tense maritime border, and a total of 73 North Korean people who ventured to flee from their home country using wooden boats were rescued by South Korean authorities. Most recently, on October 30, a wooden boat carrying 21 North Koreans, including children, was found on the waters near Baengnyeong Island, south of the Northern Limit Line on the West Sea. In 2009, there was only one case of defection by sea, which enabled 11 North Koreans to reach South Korea. In 2010, nine North Korean people crossed the sea border in five separate occasions to defect to the South. Given this, the number of defections by sea has increased sharply this year. Professor Kim Yong-hyeon of the North Korean Studies Department at Dongguk University notes that these defections are usually made in large groups.

Small groups of twos and threes would cross the maritime border to defect to South Korea in the past, but recent cases show that a whole family or people in large groups escaped across the sea. The defectors make careful preparations in advance for mass defection. It may not be easy for all the family members, including children, to escape all at once by land. Therefore, those hoping to defect to South Korea by family units are choosing a sea route.

Defection by sea entails higher risks and a lower possibility of success because such a route is more vulnerable to environmental factors than defection by land. The defectors usually depend on poor equipment such as a raft or a wooden boat and should be prepared in case they find themselves adrift for a long time as a result of weather conditions or tides. So, why are the defectors choosing to cross the sea border at greater risk of their lives?

In fact, North Korean authorities are tightening their guard around the border areas. China has also been stepping up its crackdown on illegal border-crossings in the Sino-North Korean border regions. So, it isn’t easy for would-be defectors to escape North Korea via land, prompting them to resort to defection by sea. As I said before, it is especially difficult for families, including kids, to cross the border via an overland route. Even if they manage to reach China, they are still exposed to the risk of being caught and repatriated to North Korea. Therefore, they are turning their eyes to sea routes.

North Korea has been beefing up its monitoring of its nationals since the beginning of this year to prevent possible defection. It is said that North Korea’s State Security Department issued directives nationwide, calling for stricter security around the border areas, and virtually suspended the issuance of passes that would allow people to enter those areas. According to North Korean defectors, barbed-wire fences have been set up in many regions along the Sino-North Korean border to prevent North Korean people from escaping. And China, too, is heightening security around the border areas.

China has positioned many security personnel and patrol vehicles along the border, while installing equipment aimed at preventing defection by North Koreans, such as cell phone signal detectors. Also, riot control gear, like tear gas and helmets, has been provided to Chinese border guards in case of emergency. This is because China, for its part, finds it problematic to see an increasing number of defectors from North Korea. With a large number of North Korean escapees already hiding out in China, Beijing has to appease North Korea’s complaint about a growing number of defectors crossing into China.

It is also said that North Korea’s navy has recently strengthened its coastal patrol significantly. A high government source says North Korean patrol ships have stopped monitoring illegal fishing activities by Chinese fishermen near the Northern Limit Line on the West Sea, focusing on coastal patrolling to prevent more defections by North Korean residents instead. It is said that the North Korean Coast Guard under the Fourth Corps, which is in charge of Hwanghae Province on the west coast, was entrusted with the task to inspect those suspected of attempting to defect. Professor Kim says North Korea has no other option but to bolster monitoring of its nationals to deter them from escaping to South Korea ahead of 2012, the self-proclaimed year of ushering in a strong and prosperous nation.

North Korean citizens’ defection to South Korea poses a significant burden on the North Korean regime, especially at a time when a power transfer to heir-apparent Kim Jong-un is underway and 2012, the beginning year of North Korea’s declaration that it will be a powerful and prosperous nation, is drawing nearer. An increasing number of North Korean escapees will inevitably weaken internal unity, which North Korea has desperately pursued. It is only natural that the North Korean leadership is highly vigilant against defection. North Korea and China are carrying out economic cooperation projects in various areas. If many North Koreans escape to China in that process, lots of problems may arise between the two sides. More seriously, many of them may seek to defect to South Korea. For those reasons, North Korea is keeping a sharp lookout for the defection of its nationals.

Many are wondering if North Koreans will continue to attempt to escape by sea amid the tightened security. Experts predict it will be rather hard to see a drastic increase in such defections because North Korea has reinforced its coastal patrol as well as monitoring in the border areas and only residents and laborers living in the coastal regions can manage to get boats. But Professor Kim stresses that the issues surrounding North Korean defectors in China and North Korean defections to South Korea by sea could affect inter-Korean relations.

img src=https://worldimg.kbs.co.kr/src/images/oth_tnt/dot01.gif align="absmiddle"> It is hard to expect that more North Koreans will escape across the sea, as there aren’t many fishing boats or ships available for that purpose in North Korea. North Korean authorities are also taking various measures against defection by sea. For now, the possibility of an increase in the number of defectors via a sea route is low. Even so, the trend of sea defections by North Koreans won’t influence inter-Korean relations positively. North Korea has been negative in negotiating with the South over the defector issue. The North may argue that the North Korean people aren’t actually defectors but simply happened to cross the border and were found drifting. I don’t think North Korean citizens’ defection to the South will have a positive influence on inter-Korean ties.

North Korean defectors have a number of ways of escaping, as seen in the recent sea defections. As long as North Korea is plagued by the severe food shortages and instability surrounding the third-generation power transition, people there will continue to risk their lives to flee from the country in search of a better life.

[Interview]Godmother of N. Korean Defectors

Ju Seon-ae, the honorary professor of Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, is teaching the Korean language to a North Korean student who was born in China. She is known as the “mother professor” among North Korean newcomers who have resettled here in South Korea. The lady, now in her 80s, visits organizations for North Korean defectors from time to time to provide counseling services and uses her own money to give them material and emotional support. Her recent project is to establish an orphanage for homeless North Korean children, known as kkotjebi, who begged to survive in the streets and later came to China. Let’s meet with Professor Ju.

Amid the dire food situation in North Korea, many parents there just leave their children, who fall into street life and end up in China. Hearing their sad story, I thought I should bring the poor kids to South Korea by all means to teach them and help them become decent citizens. I hoped to bring as many children I could, even though the number might be small. I’ve been thinking of this for about a year and I’ve managed to prepare a house recently. I’ve visited the Unification Ministry and Hanawon to look for ways to set up a corporate body to be officially approved as an orphanage and to bring the vagabond North Korean kids here.

Ms. Ju says she is a home-lost person herself; one who left Pyongyang long ago and just wants to help her fellow North Korean expatriates. With her warm heart, she hopes to help heal the defectors’ physical and emotional scars formed in the course of escaping North Korea. Ju opened a community center for North Korean refugees in 2005 in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul, and operated a training program for five years to help the defectors adjust to South Korean society. Each month, the five-day program invited newly-arrived North Koreans who have just completed the rehabilitation training at Hanawon and let them tour various parts of the country and volunteer to work at social welfare facilities so they could experience an unfamiliar society. Professor Ju explains that the program helped the newcomers better understand the South Korean social system and recognize the concept of volunteering, something they had never known in North Korea.

Eleven-hundred people completed the five-day training program during the five-year period. At first, the defectors wondered why on earth we offered them the program, suspecting that we would be paid for that, like public officials in North Korea. As we explained that we were volunteering to do the job and we loved them, they came to feel that something was different here and that South Korea was a good place after all. We brought them to welfare facilities for homeless people, nursing homes and Holt Children’s Services to show them how we help less fortunate people. The program provided the defectors with an opportunity to think once again about love, giving and sharing and to learn more about the South Korean system.

Ms. Ju has also engaged in various other activities to assist North Korean newcomers in their resettlement, including a scholarship program for students from North Korea. She even brought home some defectors who have no place to go and lives with them as if they were her own family. Serving as the emeritus professor of Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, Ju teaches her students about the importance of understanding newcomers from the North and underlines the need for reunification of Korea. In recognition of her contribution to the enrichment of North Korean defectors’ human rights and to their settlement in South Korea, YWCA Korea named Ju winner of 9th Women’s Leadership Award in September this year.

It’s worthwhile to do this job. I’m deeply grateful to be able to do something for North Korean defectors at this age. To love one’s country doesn’t necessarily require a big job. I’m happy as long as I can save one single North Korean person. I have a lot of work to do.

Ju says she is one of the 20-thousand North Korean defectors who have come to South Korea. We hope unification will come about soon so home-lost North Korean expatriates, including her, will smile brightly.