DPRK-PRC Border

In the mid-1990s, a combination of economic collapse, severe flooding, drought, and food shortages resulted in famine-like conditions throughout the country. Estimates posit the number of deaths resulting from starvation or starvation-related illness in the range of anywhere from 200,000 to 3.5 million (although more likely between 600,000 and one million), with a mortality rate eight times the international norm.
In the face of such extreme conditions, travel restrictions on North Koreans were eased, and many Koreans began wandering the countryside looking for food. Many North Koreans living near the Chinese border began crossing to China in search of food or money with the intention of returning home or of defecting permanently. It is estimated that anywhere between 50,000 and 400,000 North Koreans had defect to China by 2000, with between twenty and fifty thousand North Koreans currently hiding in China. Even as the worst part of the famine passed, many North Koreans continued to cross into China in hopes of finding jobs in order to provide for their families remaining behind.