Emigration from North Korea declined in 2013: South

South Korea’s Unification Ministry says more than 1,500 North Koreans left their country for South in 2013, marking a decline in such emigration during the past five years.

The number of the people who emigrated from North Korea stood at 3,000 in 2008.

According to the ministry, 1,502 North Koreans defected to the South in 2012, a year after new leader Kim Jong-un came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il.

The majority of the refugees immigrated to South through the China border.

Since 2011, Pyongyang increased its crackdown on illegal emigration by tightening border security and stepping up diplomatic campaigns to have refugees hiding in China repatriated.

A total of 26,1000 North Korean immigrants have been resettled in South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.