The Unification Ministry says an estimated 360 North Koreans fled to South Korea in the first quarter.
 
The three month total breaks down to 153 escapees in January, 111 in February and 96 in March.
 
The first quarter figure is similar to past years: 352 in 2012 and 319 last year.
 
The annual number of North Korean defectors settling in the South topped two thousand for the first time in 2006 and has since remained in the two to three thousand range.
 
But entry numbers fell to just over 15-hundred in 2012 when the Kim Jong-un regime came to power. Last year was similar with 15-hundred-14 North Koreans fleeing their homeland.