SOUTH Korean authorities are having trouble dealing with a growing wave of North Korean defectors returning to the rogue state.

According to reports, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) has ordered police stations across South Korea to locate around 900 defectors from the North, whose whereabouts are not known.

The move is in accordance with South Korea’s resident registration system.

It comes after unverified reports a North Korean defector couple returned to the communist regime after being unemployed since crossing to the South in 2014.

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Seoul’s Ministry of Unification confirmed that 26 defectors have returned to North Korea since 2012.

The latest reports of defectors turning their back on South Korea concern a couple who have disappeared in China.

South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun reported that the two defectors voluntarily returned to live again under Kim Jong-un. However the Ministry of Unification could not confirm the reports.

“The current situation is that they departed for China in mid-October and (the South Korean government) has lost contact with them,” a ministry spokesman told the network.

“And therefore, the relevant organisations are investigating it.”

KNPA confirmed to NK News the couple had recently departed South Korea for China, however their return to the North was not officially confirmed.

TV Chosun said the 33-year-old and 36-year old couple, identified as Song and Son, returned to North Korea on October 16.

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The broadcaster said they entered Hyesan city in Ryanggang Province via Jillin, China, the region where they have been reported missing.

According to the TV report the couple could not find any work since arriving in South Korea three years ago and missed their four-year-old son.

A unification ministry spokesman told NK News that Seoul would “take measures to quell a spate of re-defections”.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Unification earlier this month claim 881 North Koreas had defected to South Korea between January and September this year, making the total number of defectors to 31,092.

One of the most high profile of those was Jeon Hye-sung, who changed her name to Lim Jihyun when she fled North Korea to South Korea for a better life in January 2014.

In a video released by the North Korean government website Uriminzokkiri in July, Jeon Hye-sung said she was told to “slander and speak ill” of North Korea, criticising the Kim Jong-un regime against her will on South Korean television.

“I viciously slandered and spoke ill of the DPRK as I was told to,” Jeon said.

She went by the name Lim Ji-Jihyun in South Korea, but claims in the video that was an alias.

“I went to the South, led by fantasy that I could eat well and make a lot of money.

“But in the country where everything is judged by money, I was haunted by physical and psychological pain although I worked my butt off at bars and other places,” she said.

“Now I’m in the motherland, staying with my parents in Anju, South Pyongan Province.”

However that video came amid reports she was kidnapped and forced to return to the totalitarian state.