No Hollywood ending for North Koreans in Seoul

There are now about 15,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea. But even after the defectors successfully make it to South Korea, they still face a hard life.

"The thing is, most of the defectors now are poor, no skills," Tom O'Neill, a National Geographic writer says. "Seoul is so hypercompetitive, so dependent on the advancement of education. When the defectors get to South Korea, it's not the promised land. They start at the bottom."

O'Neill says that defectors "miss their homeland," even if they had lost their parents to starvation, had dead-end jobs or were starving, themselves, when they lived there.

“It's not a Hollywood ending, that's for sure."