Give Life and Hope to a North Korean Refugee

2020 was a very difficult year for NKHR to provide rescue operations for the North Korean refugees escaping the country.

After the closure of borders due to the pandemic, crossing of the borders became almost impossible. North Korea has completely sealed off its borders with standing orders to shoot at those attempting to cross for the fear of spread of the pandemic. North Korea coninues to report zero cases of COVID-19, yet these numbers cannot be trusted. Most of the foreign Embassies evacuated and the unofficial information provides dire picture in the country.

It is most worrisome that since majority of the population relies on private markets and the movement of goods through the border in order to survive, the containment measures have disproportionately affected the population that can neither rely on private economy nor escape due to closed borders. In fact, the unofficial reports talk about food shortages and complete lack of daily necessities on some of the black markets in North Korea.

How difficult the situation is illustrates the fact that the official number of North Korean refugees arriving in South Korea dwindled from the usual 1,000-plus individuals to only 195 people by September 2020 as reported by ROK Ministry of Unification.

While our organization rescued 230 people in 2018 and 133 people in 2019, in 2020 we managed to directly assist only three women in their 30s and 40s to reach South Korea. We also continued to operate indirect assistance in the form of food and medical assistance for those in need on the territory of the third country, but in a limited scope due to the decline in border-crossing attempts. In total, we spent U$39,720 on these operations in 2020.