Recently I was interviewed by the Kiev-based news weekly Ukrainian Week, discussing the “underground railroad” bringing defectors out of northeast China to safe-havens across Southeast Asia. The interview followed on from my previous reporting on the issue from Seoul and Phnom Penh.
The interview discusses how the number of refugees arriving in Thailand has spiked following crackdowns on North Koreans attempting to transit through Vietnam, and how the South Korean government works quietly with Southeast Asian authorities to expedite their transfer back to the South. As the number of defectors leaving the DPRK increases, the issue is becomcing an increasingly sensitive issue in North-South relations.
You can read the interview in full here, in English and Ukrainian.
