The number of North Korean defectors who came into South Korea more than tripled in the first nine months of this year from the same period last year.

According to data released by the Ministry of Unification on Tuesday, 139 North Koreans reached South Korea in the January-to-September period, up significantly from the 42 recorded in the same period in 2022.

In the third quarter alone, 40 defectors came to the South, 37 of whom were women, tracking with a sharp rise on the back of the regime’s decision to reopen its borders after years of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A ministry official told reporters that the number of defectors coming to South Korea in the preceding two years was significantly low due to the North’s border closure and China’s COVID-19 restrictions on movement.

The latest data also showed that the annual number of defectors plummeted from over one-thousand in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to 229 in 2020, 63 in 2021 and 67 in 2022.