N. Korean defectors face high unemployment

SEOUL, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- North Korean defectors often have a difficult time adjusting to the capitalist economy in South Korea, a human rights group says.

The defectors are three times more likely to be unemployed than South Koreans, said the Database Center for North Korea Human Rights in Seoul.

A survey of 361 defectors showed nearly 10 percent were unemployed, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday.

The unemployment rate among South Koreans is about 3 percent, The Korea Times reported Saturday.

The discrepancy is due, in large part, to the differences between a country such as North Korea, where every person is assigned a job by the communist government, and South Korea, where people must seek their own jobs in a capitalist economy, the center said.