The immediate reaction was that the borders really tightened. Prior to Kim Jong-un's taking over, there were about 2,000 to 2,500 defectors who arrived in South Korea every year. Following that, we heard of fences that had gone up along the border, increased patrols, motion detectors, and things like that. As a result, we've seen the number of defectors drop to about 1,500 per year in the last two years. That was an immediate kind of change. To focus more around the refugee issue, that certainly impacted not only the number of those who can escape, but also the punishments for those attempting to escape. Punishments have been more severe. It was a much more porous border because many of them had to go to China, for example, just in search of food because the public distribution system had collapsed.
On October 2nd, 2014. See this statement in context.