Unification Ministry Says 15 Percent Of North Korean Defectors Who Die In South Korea Have Committed Suicide
A statistics by the Unification Ministry of South Korea has revealed that 15 percent of the North Korean defectors who died in the country every year have committed suicide.
BBC News reported Tuesday that the percentage is more than three times higher than the suicide rate for the population of South Korea.
According to reports, there are several contributory factors for this high suicide rate, including the feeling of helplessness to go back to their home nation and the new economic reality that these defectors are facing.
A North Korean defector, who is now a businessman in South Korea, said he struggled before he was able to put up his own business in the country.
"When my earlier businesses failed, I tried to kill myself three times," Kim Song Il said. "I had to keep reminding myself how I risked my life just to get here."
Kim has experienced working as a bus driver and as a laborer after he defected 14 years ago.
Reports have revealed that 1,400 defected from North Korea to South Korea in the previous year.
Just recently, a North Korean defector pleads to go back to North Korea after she defected from the country to South Korea via China and Thailand four years ago.
"Freedom and material and other lures of any kind, they are not as important to me as my family and home," Kim Ryen Hi said. "I want to return to my precious family, even if I die of hunger."
While some of the defectors express their desire to return to North Korea, others find success after defecting from North to South.
Lee Yung Hee is a North Korean defector who now runs her own restaurant in South Korea. Lee immediately found a job when she arrived in the country. She also said that she had to start from scratch before attaining what she has right now.
"When I first arrived here the South seemed so different," Lee said. "In order to succeed, I had to learn everything from scratch."
NK News reported Sep. 11 that a total of 31 North Korean defectors in South Korea took away their lives in the past decade, according to an opposition party lawmaker.
The New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) has revealed that more than 400 North Korean defectors have died in the last ten years with 72 of them dying for unknown reasons.
"We should take a look into the reasons for the deaths of defectors who died amid our indifference," said Shin Kyoung Min of NPAD. "We need to figure out the exact reasons and prepare a follow-up plan regarding the suicides and accidental deaths of young defectors."
