North Korean defectors say the biggest obstacle to finding a job in South Korea is their accent, according to a recent survey.

In a survey of 1,400 defectors conducted last year by Kim Seok-hyang, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, 26 percent said their accent was what made job seeking difficult. It was followed by lack of skills or experience, health, and age at 22.4 percent, 18.3 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively.

The report was commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission.

Of the respondents, 37.8 percent said that they have been “mistreated or discriminated against” while working, of which 47.6 percent said that the cause was their accent.

But the report indicated that the defectors tended to refrain from actively seeking help regarding work issues. Upon having their rights infringed, 43.7 percent said that they kept it to themselves, while 20.8 percent and 9.4 percent said they addressed it via conversation or made complaints.

Kim pointed out that the North Korean defectors do not fully recognize their rights as workers, and suggested that the state authorities should provide education on their rights. She also called for a career development program, employment consultation for the defectors, as well as a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of this issue.

The number of people defecting from the communist country has been declining each year since the current leader Kim Jong-un took helm in 2011. A total of 1,502 defected and entered the South in 2012 compared to 2,706 in 2011. Last year, 1,276 people fled Kim’s repressive regime.

But according to the Unification Ministry, 342 defectors came to South Korea in the first quarter of this year, which was 51 more than the number of defectors in the same period last year.

The South Korean government has suggested that the sudden rebound may be due to economic hardship faced by the North Korean people, resulting from U.N.-led economic sanctions imposed since March.

President Park Geun-hye said last month that the recent mass defection of 13 North Korean workers from a restaurant in China was a result of the sanctions.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)