N. Korean defectors are dying lonely deaths in wealthy South

Lee Na-kyung (right) and other North Korean defectors walk to the Presidential Office for a meeting with the president’s staff on March 16, 2023. - Bloomberg

SEOUL (Bloomberg): Her badly decomposed body was found in a rundown Seoul apartment about a year after she died, discovered only after government housing officials sought to evict her for failing to pay the rent.

The woman, 49, had been well known in the community of North Korean defectors. After fleeing the reclusive nation in the early 2000s, she soon became a success story for South Korea’s resettlement programme - even counselling other defectors on how to transition to life in a modern nation.