1. The Segye Times , July 12, 2005.
2. Hangyeoreh Sinmun , Janury 4, 2005.
3. Recently, describing the 25 percent drop in the refugees' number after the dramatic reduction in the aid packages available to them, a representative of a progovernment South Korean NGO said: “The government has ended the vicious circle when earlier refugees acted as brokers in order to get hold of the ‘resettlement money’ of new coming refugees” ( The Segye Times , July 12, 2005). Of course, this “breach of the vicious circle” means that more North Koreans remain in hiding in China, doing odd jobs there—and even more are starving in the North, unable to overcome the tacit rejection by the South Korean officialdom.
4. In late 2004 and early 2005, the monthly, widely read by “progressive” intellectuals, published one or two articles to such an effect in every issue.
5. See, for example, an interview with a repentant broker, published in the Hangyeoreh Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the South Korean left (December 12, 2004): “Only belatedly I realized that planned defections annoy North Korea and China, provoke large-scale arrests of the North Korean refugees living in China and make more difficult the situation of the refugees who otherwise would live in China or return to North Korea when the economic situation improves.” This passage betrays the major desire of the South Korean left (shared by many on the right as well, albeit with lesser publicity) to send the North Koreans where they belong, to the North, and keep them there. It also contains an implicit denial that the refugees might have any other motivation but an economic one.