News stories by Ahn Mi Young, page 2

North Koreans have increasingly been crossing into the northern border cities of China, with women outnumbering men. 'Women represent about 70 percent of some 200,000 North Koreans who fled from North Korea into China in the past few years,' Kim Tae Jin, a North Korean defector who leads a nongovernment organisation to protect the human rights of fellow North Koreans tells IPS.

Young North Koreans who have defected to the South are determined to see their dream - a unified Korea - become reality, even if their counterparts in the South don’t quite agree.

Kim Tae-Jin remembers shuddering in fear when he arrived at Yoduk Prison, a notorious detention centre in North Korea, in 1998. 'First, a fear of brutal uncertainty struck me. I doubted if I would remain alive there for long,' Kim recalled.