"What is lacking... is the sense of community that the North – for all its disadvantages – had given them, particularly among people from rural areas who struggle to cope with the anonymity of life in a megalopolis like Seoul."

According to Sokeel Park, South Korea country director of Liberty in North Korea, which helps defectors.

From "'Second thoughts': what makes North Korean defectors want to go back?/South Korea is no promised land for escapees from a brutal regime – loneliness and poverty are common fates." (The Guardian).