Many North Korean defectors who have settled in South Korea suffer from tuberculosis and hepatitis B, a study showed Friday, which medical experts linked to poor health care and nutrition in the North.
Yoon Jae-young, a physician at the defectors' resettlement center Hanawon, said that of 16,340 North Koreans examined since 1999, 308 either
have been treated or are being treated for tuberculosis. Also, of 13,124 defectors who have entered Hanawon since 2004, 1,306 have tested positive for hepatitis B.
Yoon released these figures at a medical seminar in Seoul marking the 11th anniversary of the opening of Hanawon. Located about 77 kilometers south of Seoul, Hanawon provides training and education to the North Koreans
settling in the South.
The illnesses that the defectors suffer from are largely carried over from North Korea, according to Yoon, where food and hygiene conditions and medical care are poor.
"We need to pay more attention (to the defectors) through medical check-up programs and other means," Yoon said.
Kwon Min-soo, another physician at Hanawon, estimated that nearly 90 percent of women defectors needed obstetrical or gynecological treatments, mostly after not being cared for properly after giving birth in third countries while hiding and waiting to find their way to South Korea.
The defectors were also found to be vulnerable to psychological conditions from stress and traumatic experience during their escape out of
North Korea, Jeon Jin-yong, another physician, said.
The North Koreans mostly cross the border into China and spend months trying to settle in another country, mainly South Korea. They are forced to be on the run to evade authorities who seek them out for repatriation, with women targeted by human trafficking rings.
More than 19,000 North Koreans have arrived in the South as of May this year since the 1950-1953 Korean War, according to the Unification Ministry.