N. Korean defectors return to South after failed asylum attempts: report

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- More than 100 North Korean defectors who had sought aslyum overseas despite holding South Korean citizenship returned to the South in the last five years, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Seoul's diplomatic missions overseas issued 109 individual passports to North Korean defectors with South Korean citizenship in what appeared to be efforts to return to the South after fake asylum attempts were rejected or when life in foreign nations proved too difficult, even if asylum had been granted, Rep. Jungwook Hong of the Grand National Party said.

Hong cited foreign ministry data that showed the South Korean embassy in Britain issued the most such passports to 93 former North Koreans. Los Angeles had the next highest number of 10, followed by Atlanta and France with 3 each.           

"North Korean defectors with South Korean citizenship head to advanced countries in the hope they will have better social welfare systems," Hong said in a press release. "But it seems that the defectors find it hard to take root overseas because of several obstacles, including language barriers."

According to a recent survey conducted by the London-based North Korean Residents Society, 22 out of 91 defectors living in Britain polled hold South Korean citizenship, and 18 wished to return to the South.

Britain stopped granting asylum to North Korean defectors since 2009, apparently over concerns that the asylum requests were not genuine. 

Since the 1950-53 Korean War, nearly 20,000 North Koreans have defected to the South to escape from hunger and political suppression in their communist homeland. Many of those have had difficulties obtaining desirable employment due to their reklative lack of education and social discrimination against them.