Unification minister Kwon Young-se says the government is preparing for the possibility of an influx of North Korean escapees entering the nation by boat.

Kwon made the remark on Wednesday when ruling People Power Party Rep. Chung Jin-suk asked about the government’s plans to address such developments.

Co-opting the term for refugees fleeing Vietnam after the war in 1975 in referring to North Koreans who leave the country as “boat people,” Chung called on the government to devise measures in anticipation for a possible surge should a contingency occur in the North.

He supported his call by citing the recent group of North Korean defectors who had entered the South after crossing the de facto maritime border on a fishing boat earlier this month.

The minister said the group apparently defected to the South due to worsened economic conditions in the North, taking their chance amid lax containment efforts by the regime.

Kwon said he believes the number of North Korean defectors, previously on the decline, will rise in line with the North’s eased COVID-19 regulations.