SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — The dropout rate of North Korean defector students inched up over the past year, a state-run institute said Monday. The 2022 dropout rate for elementary, middle and high school defector students stood at about 1.6 percent (based on April 2021), up 0.4 percentage points from a year ago, according [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — A North Korea defector elected as a lawmaker in South Korea claimed Friday that he is “99 percent” sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died after surgery amid speculation over his health. Unconfirmed reports about Kim’s ill health have mounted since he has not appeared in public for [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Tens of thousands of South Koreans have signed a petition calling for the mandatory construction of residential flats for North Korean defectors in the ritzy district of Gangnam, southern Seoul, following a high-profile defector’s election in the constituency. In apparent derision of the Gangnam residents who elected Tae Ku-min [...]
SEOUL, April 16 (Korea Bizwire) – A high-profile North Korean defector won a constituency seat in this week’s general elections, becoming the first person hailing from the communist nation to be chosen directly by South Korean voters as their representative. Thae Yong-ho, a former No. 2 diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, was elected to the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Thae Yong-ho, a high-profile North Korean defector, said Sunday he will run in April’s parliamentary elections under a different name, one that he has used in his passport and all other official documents to evade Pyongyang’s tracking since his 2016 defection. Thae, a former No. 2 diplomat at North [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea rose 15 percent on-year in the first eight months of 2016, government data showed Wednesday, as the North’s leader is tightening his iron-fisted rule on the country. In the January-August period, 894 North Koreans escaped and arrived in South [...]
SUWON, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) – A North Korean defector who has been living in South Korea for seven years was sentenced to one year in prison with two years of probation for trying to re-enter North Korea. Park Pan-gyu, a judge at the Suwon District Court, ruled that a 24-year-old female defector only referred to [...]
SEOUL, July 19 (Korea Bizwire) – Teenage North Koreans who defected to the South are experiencing barracks life first hand with the country’s special forces in a program aimed at boosting their confidence so they can better adjust to life here, the Army said Tuesday. It said 41 students from Yeomyung School in Seoul are training [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – At first glance, Park Young-ho seems like any other young South Korean struggling either to set up his own businesses or find a job amid the slump in the local job market. But he has something that sets him apart from the majority of South Koreans. He crossed the [...]