A/HRC/25/CRP.1 389. Figures provided by the ROK Ministry of Unification on the number of DPRK citizens who have entered ROK also show a growing trend from 2001 up until 2009. The numbers decreased thereafter with a marked reduction between 2011 and 2012.490 390. The motivations of those who left in recent years have become more varied. Based on a survey conducted in 2012, the Korean Bar Association found that the pattern for “defections” has changed in that recent “defections” have been for political reasons rather than economic ones. Furthermore, “defections” by families outnumber individual “defections”, and these “defections” appear to be more permanent than before.491 391. In some cases, people are fleeing to China to escape direct persecution for political or religious reasons. • Mr A regularly travelled to China to find food to survive and also engaged in some trading activities. During these visits he came into contact with Christian churches. When the MPS interrogated him under torture about the reason for his visits, he took the decision to flee to China on a permanent basis.492 • One witness who was a practising Christian from North Hamgyong Province fled the DPRK in 2011. A fellow Christian gave away her name under torture before being executed. When agents of the KPA Military Security Command came to arrest her, she escaped across the Tumen River.493 392. A large number of DPRK citizens also fled the economic hardship and lack of food that endured even in the 2000s, especially in the marginalized areas near the Chinese border, as a result of discriminatory violations of the right to food.494 Many of those who fled for such reasons were suffering socio-economic deprivation as a result of being classified in a low songbun social class, because the political loyalty of their forebears was put into question.495 In some of these cases, they planned to go to China for a limited period to earn money, but were forcibly repatriated. As a result of repatriation and the punishment that followed, they were branded as political traitors and lost any remaining access to job opportunities, housing and other essential goods. 393. As they received more information about life outside the DPRK, persons who fled the DPRK increasingly sought to reach the ROK. Those who were successful in reaching 490 The following table showing the number of DPRK citizens who have entered ROK between 2001 and September 2013: ~2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013.9 Total 565 511 472 624 423 512 571 608 671 589 797 405 250 7829 Female 479 632 810 1272 959 Total 1143 1282 1896 1382 2022 2548 2805 2929 2402 2706 1502 1041 Male 1044 Female 46 per 55 ratio cent per cent 491 492 493 494 495 110 63 per cent 67 per cent 69 per cent 1510 1977 2197 2258 1813 1909 1097 791 75 per cent 78 per cent 78 per cent 77 per cent 75 per cent 70 per cent Source: ROK, Ministry of Unification, The Number of North Korean Defectors. Available from http://www.unikorea.go.kr/index.do?menuCd=DOM_000000101007001002. KBA, 2012 White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea, pp. 54, 510-513. Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, afternoon (with additional details provided by the witness in a confidential interview). TJH017. See section IV.D. See section IV.B. 72 per cent 76 per cent 17820 25649 69 per cent