To avoid worsening the already tense relations with the Korean Peninsula, China refuses to grant North Korean defectors refugee status and considers them illegal economic migrants. sanctions for decades, is also the largest, and has been a continuous aid source of the country. China, being the most influential of the few economic partners of North Korea while the country has been under U.N. The defectors usually flee to a third country due to China being a relatively close ally of North Korea. About 76% to 84% of defectors interviewed in China or South Korea came from the Northeastern provinces bordering China. The most common strategy of North Korean defectors is to cross the Chinese border into Jilin and Liaoning provinces in northeast China.

Since then, some of the main reasons for the falling number of defectors have been strict border patrols and inspections, forced deportations, the costs of defection, and the end of the mass famine that swept the country when Soviet aid ceased with the dissolution of the USSR.

Towards the end of the North Korean famine of the 1990s, there was a steep increase in defections, reaching a peak in 19. Alternative terms for such North Korean defectors in South Korea include 'northern refugees' ( Korean: 탈북자, talbukja or 탈북민, talbukmin) and 'new settlers' ( 새터민, saeteomin). North Koreans flee to various countries, mostly South Korea and China. North Korean defectors refer to North Koreans who have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons after the division of Korea after the end of World War II and the Korean War.

I Escaped North Korea by Ellie Crowe