Virus Outbreak: Fewer N Korean defectors due to pandemic: Seoul AFP, SEOUL The number of North Koreans defecting to the South last year plummeted after Pyongyang closed its border in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said yesterday. The figure has been on a steady decline for the past few years, but slumped to just 229 last year, the ministry said, far below the 1,047 of 2019. The vast majority of Northern defectors first travel to neighboring China, sometimes staying there for years before making their way to the South via third countries, and only a handful directly cross the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.