The "conservative" number of North Korean defectors...

The "conservative" number of North Korean defectors hiding in China was estimated at 50,000 at the end of 2001, with 583 of them fleeing to freedom in South Korea, a non-profit United States organisation helping refugees said in its recent annual report.
"The number of North Koreans living in China at the end of the year remained unknown. Estimates range from 10,000 to 500,000, though most NGOs give 300,000 as the upper estimate. Medecins Sans Frontieres believes the figure is about 200,000," the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) said in its "World Refugee Survey 2002."
Since Chinese border guards stepped-up forcible repatriations in 1999, China arrested some 6,000 North Koreans in June and July 2001 alone, the committee said citing NGOs working in the border area. The US State Department reported that an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans were political prisoners in maximum-security camps in remote areas in 2001, the committee said.
Up to two million North Koreans, or nearly 10 percent of the population, have died from hunger or famine-related disease since 1994, the committee said, adding that some mortality estimates range as high as 3.5 million. Hundreds to thousands are entering China monthly to escape the North's food crisis, compounded by political turmoil, repression, and mismanagement, added the committee.
"The North Korean criminal code lists defection or attempted defection as a capital crime. In cases where the person commits an extremely grave offence, he or she shall be given the death penalty," the committee said.