Recent government data has confirmed that the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea is on the rise.

Seoul’s Ministry of Unification on Wednesday estimated that a total of 894 North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea this year as of the end of August, up 15 percent from the same period last year.

The figure marks 2016 as the first year to see a noticeable rise in the number of defections since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took power in 2011.

The number of North Koreans fleeing to the South jumped to two-thousand-914 in 2009, but due to strengthened border control and punishment on defectors under the Kim Jong-un regime, the number faltered to two-thousand-706 in 2011 to one-thousand-502 in 2012. 

It slightly rose to one-thousand-514 in 2013, but began to fall to one-thousand-397 in 2014 and one-thousand-276 last year.