The number of North Korean defectors who have entered South Korea has surpassed the 23,000 mark as of the end of 2011, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.

Last year, 2,737 North Koreans entered the South, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier, the ministry said. Seventy percent of them were female.

The annual number of North Koreans choosing to live in the South has continually increased from 947 in 1998 to more than 2,000 in 2006. The figure peaked in 2009 with 2,927 but inched down slightly to 2,379 in 2010.

As of the end of June, 32 percent of North Korean defectors in South Korea were in their 30s, followed by 27 percent in their 20s.

Fifty percent of them had no occupation and another 38 percent were laborers.

As of November, 29 percent of North Korean defectors in South Korea were living in Seoul, followed by 27 percent in Gyeonggi Province and 9 percent in Incheon.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)