Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighbouring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.
The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders — purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China — to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
In 2021 only 63 people made it to the South, a more than 90 percent decrease from 2019, when 1,047 defectors arrived. Just 67 people arrived in 2022.