1. What changed about China's surveillance systems or procedures to make them ~20x more effective at catching refugees in a couple years?
2. There's a bit about how North Korean refugees can apply for asylum in South Korea. I was under the impression (from Barbara Demick's book Nothing to Envy) that all North Koreans are more or less granted asylum by default. My recollection is that she put it even more strongly in her book: that SK in effect treated fleeing North Korean citizens as de facto citizens of South Korea, because they are meant to be one country. Is the asylum process mentioned here a rubber stamp, or did the process get more strict? Would a refugee from North Korea ever be refused asylum in South Korea?
There were a couple things I didn't understand:
1. What changed about China's surveillance systems or procedures to make them ~20x more effective at catching refugees in a couple years?
2. There's a bit about how North Korean refugees can apply for asylum in South Korea. I was under the impression (from Barbara Demick's book Nothing to Envy) that all North Koreans are more or less granted asylum by default. My recollection is that she put it even more strongly in her book: that SK in effect treated fleeing North Korean citizens as de facto citizens of South Korea, because they are meant to be one country. Is the asylum process mentioned here a rubber stamp, or did the process get more strict? Would a refugee from North Korea ever be refused asylum in South Korea?