Kim Jong Un’s Rule Leads to Biggest Surge in North Korean Defections

The number of people from North Korea’s “elite” who have defected to the South on Kim Jong Un’s watch is more than double the amount who defected under his father, former Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il.

The number of North Koreans who defected to the South last year was 196—triple the previous year, but lower than pre-pandemic levels, according to Seoul’s Ministry of Unification. Many of them are considered so-called “elite” defectors, such as diplomats, overseas workers and military officials.

South Korean newspaper The Chosun Daily on Thursday cited ministry data as saying that as many as 188 elite North Koreans were brought under the “exclusive protection” of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service due to their perceived value to national security, between July 1997 and last month.

That’s 134 more than the number of defectors living under exclusive protection in the South when Kim Jong Il died in December 2011, according to the outlet.

These high-status North Koreans have also comprised a higher proportion of total defectors, or 1.22 percent out of 10,985, during Kim Jong Un’s first 13 years at the helm. That’s about five times higher than the 0.23 percent of the 23,027 who fled the country during the 16-year rule of his father.

Elites interviewed by the news outlet who had experienced rule under all three members of the Kim dynasty noted there is much resentment among Pyongyang’s ruling class toward the current regime, which is viewed as having no future.

The North Korean embassy in China didn’t immediately respond to written requests for comment.

High-level defectors undermine the image of stability the North Korean government seeks to project.

The highest-profile of these defections occurred last year with the flight of Ri Il Kyu, a former senior counsel at the communist country’s embassy in Cuba, and his family. In an exclusive interview published by the Chosun Daily in July, Ri opened up about the “bleak future” of the system he had left behind.

The North Korean government strictly controls the flow of information within its borders and metes out harsh penalties to those caught trying to leave the country, with punishments ranging from prison camps to public execution.

North-South ties have been at a state of heightened tensions in recent years following a brief warming period in the late 2010s. The neighbors are technically still at war, having never signed a peace treaty at the end of the Korean War in 1953.

On Tuesday, a North Korean soldier defected to the South after making the dangerous crossing over the countries’ heavily militarized border.