SINGAPORE — There are now more North Korean defectors working in the South's public sector than ever before, Seoul has said.

By the end of 2024, 211 North Korean defectors held jobs in the public sector, 17 more than the previous year, the Ministry of Unification said in a statement on Wednesday.

That number is the highest since 2010, when North Korean defectors "began to enter the public service in earnest", the ministry said.

Seoul has been widening its support for North Korean defectors who struggle with unemployment and social isolation as they adjust to their new lives in the South.

"There is a growing need to expand opportunities for North Korean defectors to enter public service so that they can directly participate in and contribute to the government's policymaking," the ministry said.

Authorities in Seoul have in recent years intensified social integration programmes. It has also offered financial support and tax incentives for companies who hire North Korean defectors.

At an event on Wednesday, Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho shared a meal with North Korean defectors in public service roles.

There are about 30,000 North Korean defectors residing in South Korea. But defections have waned since the pandemic, which saw countries shut their borders. Before 2020, more than 1,000 North Koreans fled to the South every year.

North Korean defectors are denounced by the regime, and rights groups say that those caught escaping to the South are punished with imprisonment and torture.

Last July, former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho was named the new leader of South Korea's presidential advisory council on unification - the first defector to be given such a high rank in South Korea's government.

In 2020, Tae became the first defector to be elected to South Korea's National Assembly.

Pyongyang had called him "human scum" and accused him of crimes including embezzlement.

The defectors offer a rare look into the highly secretive regime under leader Kim Jong Un. They have told stories of human rights abuses under the regime, including widespread starvation, forced labor and state-enforced disappearances.

But many of them face serious challenges as they settle into their new lives: difficulties finding and holding down jobs, social stigma and mental health issues stemming from traumatic experiences in the North. — BBC