366 defect from North to South Korea
01/05/2004 - 10:22:15A total of 366 North Koreans defected to South Korea in the first three months of this year, up 14% from the same period a year, the Unification Ministry said today.
The number of North Koreans fleeing their communist country for the South has been rising annually in recent years. Last year the number was 1,285, up from 1,140 in 2002 and 583 in 2001.
Most defectors cross from North Korea into China, which shares a long border with the impoverished North.
North Korea has been depending on outside help to feed its 22 million people since 1995.
The Koreas were divided in 1945. Their border remains sealed and heavily guarded by nearly two million troops on both sides following the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
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