South Korean authorities launched an investigation after the decomposing remains of a North Korean defector were found in the capital Seoul last Wednesday.
The defector was a 40-year-old woman who fled to South Korea in 2002, according to police and South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.
The woman had missed several rent payments and could not be contacted, so Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation – a public housing company – sent workers to visit her apartment, where they found her body, according to Seoul police.
His body was severely decomposed, to an “almost skeletal status”, police said. Based on the winter clothes she wore, police suspect she has been dead for about a year – but more exact details are expected after an autopsy.
The Unification Ministry did not name her, but said officials have already pointed to her as an example of a resettlement success story.
From 2011 to 2017, the woman worked as a counselor at the ministry-run Korea Hana Foundation, helping other defectors resettle in the south, the ministry said.
South Korean authorities routinely monitor North Korean defectors and provide welfare checks during the resettlement process — but in 2019, the woman asked police not to extend her protection services, according to Seoul Police.
The Unification Ministry also said the woman was not on its own watch list.
Police said they had submitted an investigation request to the National Forensic Service.
A Unification Ministry official said the case was “very sad”, adding that the ministry would re-examine the crisis management system for North Korean defectors and work in areas that need improvement.
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare had previously warned that there were “signs of a (welfare) crisis”, prompting local authorities in Seoul to launch their own investigation.
Defectors began entering South Korea in significant numbers around the turn of the century, most fleeing first across North Korea’s long border with China.
Since 1998, more than 33,000 people have defected from North Korea to South Korea, according to the Unification Ministry, with annual numbers reaching 2,914 in 2009.
Those numbers have dropped sharply since the start of the pandemic, with just 42 defectors registered so far this year – compared to more than 1,000 in 2019.
Crossing the border is fraught with risks, such as being trafficked in China’s sex trade or being caught and sent back to North Korea, where defectors face torture, imprisonment and death.
But those who successfully arrive in South Korea often encounter a host of new challenges, including culture shock, hostility from some South Koreans, financial pressures and difficulties finding employment in the country’s notoriously competitive job market.
In 2020, 9.4% of defectors in South Korea were unemployed – compared to 4% of the general population, according to the Unification Ministry.
In early January, a defector in South Korea – reportedly a construction worker in his 30s – returned to North Korea, just a year after he originally fled the isolated and impoverished nation. His unusual comeback made international headlines, highlighting how challenging life in the South can be for North Koreans.
(This story has been updated with additional information from the South Korean authorities)
Source: CNN Brasil
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