North Korea: Preparing defectors for new lives in South Korea

The number who have escaped and made it to the South has fallen dramatically over the last decade or so. of North Koreans making the difficult and dangerous journey to South Korea - risking possible death if they are caught - has fallen significantly in recent years. But the few who do make it to the country to escape poverty and repression About two hours' drive from the South Korean capital, Seoul, there is a Part training-hub, part medical facility, part re-education centre, where North Korean defectors are sent for three months when they arrive in South Korea.

Why It's Almost Impossible to Escape from North Korea

You've hatched an escape plan and followed it to every last detail, but you still can't escape the grip of North Korea! Why is it impossible to leave this extreme country?

North Korea defectors: Why it's getting harder to escape - BBC News

 

Every year, hundreds of people make the perilous journey out of North Korea as they escape from the "hermit kingdom". But the number of defectors has been steadily dropping in recent years, as North Korean authorities have clamped down.

What North Koreans learned about the U.S. in North Korea

Chinese 'snakehead' gangs offer only escape for North Korea's defectors

Lee rubs his chin with his forefinger; his face obscured by a blue baseball cap. We sit together in the back of a taxi beside a frigid river near China's bleak northeastern border with North Korea.

He's traveling with Chinese smuggling gangs or "snakeheads." They fed and clothed him when he escaped.
Lee speaks in staccato sentences.

"I was a soldier," he says, "I did something on the base and I had to flee."
Lee won't say what he did and we can't give his real name for his own safety. He wants to protect his wife and child in North Korea. Whatever the reason, it compelled him to flee like thousands before him.