A total of 12 North Korean refugees arrived here between April and June this year, the lowest figure since 2003 when Seoul’s Unification Ministry started compiling the data, it said Wednesday.

The figure is down 96 percent from the same period last year, when 320 defectors fled the communist regime.

The downward trend was a continuation from the previous quarter -- from January to March -- when 135 North Koreans arrived here, compared to 229 in the same period last year. The coronavirus pandemic, which tightened border controls, is believed to be the reason behind the dramatic reduction.

“Upon crossing the land border between Pyongyang and Beijing, defectors head south to either Laos or Thailand before getting here,” said an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a think tank run by the Unification Ministry.

The pandemic had tangled up the routes defectors take, the analyst added. The ministry forecast that around 350 defectors would arrive here this year, roughly 70 percent fewer than last year.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)