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More than 10,000 North Koreans have fled here since the end of the Korean War in search of food and freedom, but they now face other challenges: unemployment, crime and discrimination.

The number of defectors surpassed 10,000 in February, marking the highest number ever, although the inter-Korean border remains sealed and heavily fortified since the end of the 1950-53 conflict.

A stream of North Koreans has flowed into South Korea via countries like China, Laos and Thailand, as the North's socialist economy came to a virtual halt in recent years due to mismanagement and natural disasters.

In the mid-1990s, when North Korea was hit by heavy floods, the annual number of North Korean defectors reached double digits, and in 1999, it swelled to a triple-digit number. In 2006 alone, 1,578 defectors came to the South. Some 300,000 are still believed to be hiding in China.

But those lucky enough to have made it to the wealthy South find themselves confronting yet another economic challenge -- unemployment.

A recent report by Seoul National University showed that nearly seven out of every 10 defectors in South Korea were unemployed.

The survey of 451 defectors revealed that 306, or over 67 percent, had no jobs.

Even a defector with a job is likely to earn less than half of what an ordinary South Korean makes. The survey said defectors make an average 1,560 won (US$1.70) per hour while the legal minimum wage here is 3,480 won an hour.

"Coming from a socialist country, defectors often have trouble adapting to capitalistic working environments," Professor Park Sang-in, who conducted the survey, said. "They should be given more realistic job training."

Defectors start their lives here with some financial support from the South Korean government. Each defector receives 6 million won upon arrival, and an additional 13 million won is available to each household for housing.

But a recent study showed that many end up losing their money to fraud and other crimes. A survey released in January showed that 21.5 percent of 214 North Korean defectors had been cheated out of financial assets, a figure that is 43 times higher than the average 0.5 percent among South Koreans.

The survey jointly conducted by the state-funded Korea Institute of Criminal Justice Policy and Cheongju University showed that 23.4 percent had been victims of crimes like fraud, theft and robbery, five times higher than what is normally found among South Koreans.

"Their lack of understanding of the legal system here makes them vulnerable to such crimes," Lee Jeong-hwan, a sociology professor at Cheongju University, said.

Some say defectors face a new kind of discrimination due to their identification numbers. South Koreans carry national registration cards as proof of their identity, and defectors who have gained South Korean citizenship say a sequence of numbers on their cards indicate that they came from North Korea, which leads to discrimination.

All defectors who have received resettlement training in a facility outside Seoul share the same last three or four numbers on their identification cards.

Defectors claim China has recently refused to issue visas to them after identifying them through the last several digits on the cards.

Some South Korean companies and organizations also recognize the numbers and refuse to give defectors chances to work, they claimed.

"We're being stigmatized by our own national registration numbers," said Kim Seung-cheol, an official with the Association of North Korean Defectors. "We're working with the government to fix this problem."

In another development, a civic group recently demanded the changing of the word that the government uses to refer to defectors.

The Ministry of Unification, the government body mainly responsible for settlement of defectors, introduced in 2004 what it believed to be an euphemistic term to describe North Korean defectors -- "Sae-teo-min," or a person who has found a new place to live.

But a group that claims a membership from 20 different associations of North Korean defectors has argued that the term evokes an image of vagabonds scavenging for food, refusing to use it when they refer to themselves.

"Conditions don't seem to get better despite the increasing number of North Korean defectors here," said Lee Yeong-han, a researcher with the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.

"Integration is a key issue if we still aim to unify the divided Korea," he said. "What better way to prepare for it than embrace these defectors with more realistic measures?"
Seoul, April 20 (Yonhap News)