SEO | North Korean Defections Rise, But Is The South Ready?

ANSEONG, South Korea - Escaping North Korea was the easy part. "One of the soldiers led me and my sister across the river. There were several soldiers at the guard post - they were pretending not to see anything. It was like I was invisible,"said Eun-seo of her escape across the Tumen River into China.

If you have money, guards can easily be bought.

And today, more than ever, North Koreans have access to cash, thanks to a growing disapora in China and South Korea.

The dangerous part of Eun-seo's defection to the South was the daring three-month trip through China, the heat-sapping hike through the jungles and mountains of Myanmar, and the raft ride in the crocodile infested waters of a Laos river.

Eun-seo, now 20, was lucky to survive the treacherous journey. Another elderly woman in her group of about a dozen did not. She fell to her death from a cliff on the jungle path.

Eun-seo's tale of escape is typical of most stories from defectors arriving in South Korea, and the number is rising fast.

As more North Koreans arrive, they use relocation grants from the wealthy South Korean government to pay brokers in China to extract their kin from the impoverished and isolated North.

The International Crisis Group said in a report last month that the rising tide of defectors and Seoul's struggle to integrate them underlines the immense challenges if ever there is a massive outflow of refugees from the North.

Although only a 4-km (2.5-mile) wide so-called demilitarised zone separates the Koreas, the two countries and their inhabitants are worlds apart in every other way.

In their new homeland, defectors - who are ethnically and linguistically the same - live as outcasts, often ridiculed for their small physical build, coarse language, and inability to mix socially and hold down a job.

"They share the same ambitions as their South Korean peers, but the disappointing reality behind their disadvantage could easily lead to a life of crime or even suicide," said Chun Ki-won, a Seoul-based missionary who has helped hundreds defect.

"Generally defectors are not looked upon kindly, and some wonder why they even need to be helped, which is a serious concern. The younger generation nowadays does not consider reunification as a priority, and this needs to addressed."

Analysts say the South Koreans are losing interest in reunification, put off by estimates that it could cost in the region of $1 trillion, much of which would have to be met by South Koreans themselves through higher taxes.

Chun says the South Koreans have become self-centred and greedy, a by-product of the country's rapid rise over the past two decades from an emerging economy to its standing today as the world's 15th largest.