The iron curtain finally disappeared when the trickle of people leaving turned into a flood. It's not a flood here yet, but...
The number of North Koreans arriving in the South has surged because of economic hardship, passing 20,000 at the weekend, South Korea says.
Until 1999 fewer than 1,000 North Koreans had made the journey to the South, but an influx began after famine hit in the mid-1990s.
In 2009 a record 2,927 North Koreans defected to the South, Seoul's Unification Ministry said...
The border between the two neighbours is heavily fortified, so most new arrivals make a long and difficult journey via the northern border with China.
China has a repatriation agreement with Pyongyang, so North Koreans must make their way to a third country in order to move on to South Korea.
Once there, they are given resettlement training and help with finding housing by the South Korean government.
Almost half of the arrivals have come in the last three years.
More here.
If China dropped their repatriation agreement with Pyongyang, then it soon would be a flood. The DPRK would collapse. The Chinese hold the survival of the Kim dynasty in their hands. And then there's Burma....
Which reminds me a Soviet era joke: Brigitte Bardot asks Brezhnev to open the borders for free emigration of all Soviet citizens who wish to do so. "What, you want to remain with me alone, you naughty girl?" is his response...
Posted by: SnoopyTheGoon | November 18, 2010 at 06:01 PM