North Korea has targeted its own defectors with propaganda in attempts to lure them back as double defectors, but contemporary South Korean defectors born outside of North Korea are generally not welcome to defect to the North. In recent years there have been seven people who tried to leave South Korea, but they were detained for illegal entry in North Korea, and ultimately repatriated. As of 2019, there are reportedly 5461 former South Korean citizens living in North Korea. There have also been fatalities as a result of failed defections. One defector died in a failed
murder-suicide attempt by her husband while in detention. This is an incomplete list of
notable cases of defections from South Korea to North Korea. • 1986 •
Choe Deok-sin, a former
South Korean
Foreign Minister defected with his wife,
Ryu Mi-yong, to
North Korea. • 1996 • Paek Hung-ryong, a 30 year old former Nanmuri Screen representative and Agency for National Security Planning agent, according to KCNA, with his wife Jin Chan I, 25, defected to North Korea in December 1996. Paek claimed that he came to the North to "expose the ANSP tentacle in the North" and that he and his wife "yearned for the North". Paek Hung-ryong wrote an article in the
Rodong Sinmun newspaper named "Poisonous spider, king of fascism lording it over people" in the March 13, 1997 edition. A mass meeting was held in mid January 1997 for both of them in Pyongyang. • 1997 • Han Kyong-son, a 36 year old South Korean boilerman in a
Taejon hotel, defected to the North via a third country in early July 1997. When interviewed on July 17, 1997, he declared that "since the election of
Kim Young-Sam, a large number of decadent amusement and service centres have appeared in South Korea, causing such evils as murder, raping and robbery", and that he "defected to the North because ordinary people including him cannot live a life worthy of man in South Korea." He was awarded a DPR Korea order and a money prize on July 22, 1997, during a meeting, and was welcomed by
Pyongyangites. • 1998 • Song Ki-chan, a South Korean fisherman from
Incheon defected to North Korea. Song sailed his trawler to an unnamed port in the North. • Yun Song-sik, a 61 year old activist from
South Jeolla Province, and member of the Central Executive Committee of the Social People's Party in South Korea, defected to the North in early December 1998. He declared that "He has come to the north with a determination to make worthwhile contributions to the struggle for national reunification under the politics of the northern half of Korea". On January 14, 1999, a mass meeting was held in his honor in
Pyongyang and received a DPR Korea order and a money prize. He became a permanent member of the Consultative Council of Former South Korean Politicians in the North for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification in 1999, often criticizing the South Korean government, notably on the National Security Act, and the United States. He published two books; "Under the Care of the Great Sun" (2001) and "자주 통일 의 기치 따라" (2004). • 2004 • A 33 year old South Korean soldier named Chen was arrested for violating the
National Security Law by secretly crossing in to North Korea and providing information about the military unit he served in. Chen made it to
Hoeryong in
North Hamgyŏng Province of North Korea by crossing the
Tumen River running through the
Jilin province of China. Deported by the North as an illegal entrant and repatriated to South Korea from China, Chen was suspected of providing military information to North Korea like the location of the
air force fighter wing he served in and the location of
anti-air batteries. • 2005 • A 57 year-old South Korean fisherman named Hwang Hong-ryon in the
Hwangman-ho crossed the
Northern Limit Line into North Korea whilst reportedly "dead drunk". The
South Korean navy fired some 20
warning shots from various arms, including a 60 mm mortar, but were unable to stop the ship. • 2009 • 30 year old Kang Tong-rim cut a hole in the demilitarized zone fence and defected whilst reportedly wanted in South Korea. He was later deported back to the south. The hole was not found until over 24 hours later when South Korea was alerted through North Korean media. • 2019 • Choe In-guk, the son of former South Korean Foreign Minister Choe Deok-sin, said he had decided to "permanently resettle" in North Korea to honour his parents' wish that he live there and devote himself to the unification of the Korean peninsula, according to North Korea’s
state-controlled news website
Uriminzokkiri. • 2022 • An unidentified South Korean citizen had defected to North Korea at the start of January by crossing into the Demilitarized Zone. ==List of notable defectors==