A U.S. study on North Korean defectors found that virtually none of them believes that their reclusive regime is improving and that the majority believes in South Korea taking the lead in the two Korea's reunification.

U.S. experts on North Korea, including University of California Professor Stephan Haggard, released a report recently in which they surveyed 16-hundred North Korean defectors.

According to the report, the escapees said there are nearly no North Koreans who believe the nation’s conditions will improve under the leadership of Kim Jong-il and that many support unification that includes forging an alliance with the U.S.

They also said that about half of all North Koreans watch foreign news and entertainment programs, including South Korean movies and TV shows, and are aware of the gap in living standards between the North and the South.

The report says the developments started to occur when privately run food markets were formed in the communist state due to famine in the 1990s. But it says that authorities have since banned excessive amounts of such economic activity and have arrested more than half of those who participated in such markets.