The number of North Korean defectors who arrived in South Korea in the first ten months of the year marked one-thousand-154, up 21 percent year-on-year.
 
A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said on Sunday that the cumulative number stands at 29-thousand-948 as of the end of October, expecting the figure to surpass 30-thousand in mid-November.
 
The number of North Korean escapees sharply increased for the first time this year since the launch of the Kim Jong-un regime in 2011.
 
The figure increased to two-thousand-914 in 2009, but steadily decreased to two-thousand-706 in 2011, one-thousand-502 in 2012, one-thousand-397 in 2014 and one-thousand-276 last year due to tightened controls at the border areas and tougher punishments.
 
The ministry plans to release state support measures for the North Korean escapees in mid-November.

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