North Korean defectors

2024: North Korean defectors who entered Korea numbered 236 people.
1998 onward, the cumulative total is 34,314 persons, of whom women number 24,834, or 72.2%.
The largest year was 2009 2,914 people.

Source: MOU Status of Settlement Support for North Korean Defectors.

Note: North Korean defectors become citizens of the Republic of Korea on arrival, so they are counted in neither registered foreigners nor staying foreigners. MOU counts them separately, and the figures cannot be added to MOJ or MOIS statistics.

Table 1.Cumulative arrivals, 1998–2024Unit: persons, %

Category	Value	Unit
Cumulative arrivals	34,314	persons
Men	9,576	persons
Women	24,834	persons
Female share	72.2	%
Peak year	2009
Arrivals that year	2,914	persons

Source: MOU Status of Settlement Support for North Korean Defectors, e-National Indicators, Public Data Portal.

Figure 1.Arrivals by year, 1998–2024Unit: persons

Source: MOU Status of Settlement Support for North Korean Defectors, e-National Indicators, Public Data Portal.

Note: Counts start in 1998, and the 947 people who arrived before that are counted separately. Women have outnumbered men since 2002 and make up 72.2% of the cumulative total. Arrivals fell sharply after 2020 under border controls and recovered in part in 2024.

View as table

Year	Arrivals

Relation to other statistics

North Korean defectors become Korean nationals on arrival, so they appear in neither registered foreigners nor staying foreigners. The Ministry of Unification counts them separately, and the figures cannot be added to those on other pages.

There are no district-level values. MOU does not publish the regional distribution, and this count appears in no cell of any district report.