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BUSAN (Yonhap News) ― Eight North Korean defectors are believed to have sought asylum in Britain after staying for years in South Korea, police said Tuesday.
Police in Busan recently conducted a survey on 25 North Korean defectors who stayed in foreign countries for more than three months. The police hoped to gain insight into the North Koreans’ motivation to live overseas.
Among them, eight North Korean defectors, including a couple, are believed to be staying in Britain in an attempt to win asylum, according to a police official handling defectors in Busan.
South Korea is home to more than 20,000 North Koreans who fled hunger and political oppression in their communist homeland, but many of them fail to get decent jobs, falling further down the social ladder in this highly competitive society.
Such challenges apparently prompted some North Koreans with hopes of a higher quality of life to leave South Korea and seek asylum in foreign countries.
North Koreans fleeing their homeland can seek asylum in South Korea and other foreign countries, but once they become South Korean citizens, they are not eligible to seek refuge in foreign countries, said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman for the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs.
Lee said she did not have any data on how many North Korean defectors from South Korea applied for asylum in foreign countries and how many were deported.
The survey only targeted North Koreans who lived in South Korea’s second-largest city of Busan after defecting from the North. Nationwide figures were not immediately available.
The police official said many of those who tried to seek asylum have failed to adjust to South Korea and struggled with economic difficulties after running out of the money they received from the South Korean government.
He did not elaborate and asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.
South Korea provides defectors with three months of mandatory resettlement training and doles out 13 million won ($11,650) to each household as housing subsidy while offering vocational training to help them find jobs.
Some 42 percent of 768 North Koreans surveyed last year in Busan said they have jobs, though most of them have non-regular jobs, according to police.
부산 '새터민' 8명 사회부적응, 망명 신청
해외장기체류 25명 중 목적 불명 10명에 달해
부산지역에 정착했던 새터민(북한이탈주민) 가 운데 8명이 사회에 적응하지 못해 해외 망명을 신청한 것으로 나타났다.
부산경찰청은 최근 3개월 이상 장기 해외 체류 중인 부산지역 새터민 25명을 대 상으로 실태 조사를 한 결과, 이 가운데 8명이 망명 신청자로 드러났다고 22일 밝혔 다.
또 10명은 해외 체류 목적을 파악할 수 없었고, 친지방문 3명, 신병치료와 어학 연수 각 2명 등으로 조사됐다.
이들 새터민의 체류 국가는 영국이 8명으로 가장 많았고, 중국 3명, 일본과 캐 나다 각 2명으로 나타났다. 나머지 10명의 체류 국가는 확인되지 않았지만 제3국 망 명 또는 재중동포 배우자와 동거 목적 등으로 중국 등에 체류하고 있는 것으로 추정 되고 있다.
경찰 조사결과 해외 망명을 신청한 새터민들은 대부분 한국 사회 적응에 실패, 브로커를 통해 출국한 것으로 알려졌다.
경찰은 영국에 새터민 체류가 많은 것은 영국 정부가 난민신분 체류자에게 월 1 10만원 가량의 생활비를 지원하고 있기 때문으로 분석하고 있다.
경찰은 이번 분석 결과를 부산시 등 관계 기관에 통보하고, 이들 기관과 함께 새터민의 취업 및 안정적 정착을 지원하기로 했다.
경찰은 이와 함께 해외 장기 체류 후 입국하는 새터민들의 신변 보호 활동도 강 화할 방침이다.
한편 지난해 7월 부산지역 새터민 768명을 상대로 취업실태를 파악한 결과, 전 체의 42.4%(326명)만이 취업했지만 정규직은 16%에 그쳤고, 나머지 84%는 비정규직 으로 나타났다.
