The U.N. refugee agency said in an annual report that there were 1,103 North Korean defectors living as refugees around the world in 2015, down 1,282 from the year before.

An additional 230 are currently pending decision on their asylum applications, according to the Global Trend 2015 report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, while a total of 74 are being assisted by the UNHCR.

The report did not specify the distribution of defectors per country. As the figure does not include defectors who have acquired permanent residence in other countries, the actual number of defectors is expected to be higher.

The U.N. agency files the report each year based on statistics from each government, affiliated organizations and studies conducted on its own.

The number of North Koreans defecting to the South -- which peaked at 2,706 in 2011 -- has been declining since Kim Jong-un rose to power there in 2012. It dropped from 1,502 in 2012 to 1,276 in 2015, which observers have attributed to economic improvement compared to the late 2000s and a reinforced crackdown by Pyongyang authorities on defectors and those condoning such acts.

But the South Korean Unification Ministry last month said that 493 North Koreans came to the South from January to April, marking a 16.3 percent on-year increase from 424 in 2015.

In April, 13 North Koreans who had worked at a China-based restaurant arrived in Seoul, followed by another group defection of three North Korean employees in May.

Seoul government said that the U.N. Security Council sanctions -- imposed against Pyongyang after its Jan. 6 nuclear testing and Feb. 7 long-range rocket launch -- may have affected the defectors’ decision.

But local liberal lawyers’ group Minbyun raised questions on whether the defectors came to Korea of their own free will. The defectors’ families in North Korea have claimed that the South kidnapped them.

Conservative groups have lambasted such allegations, with ruling Saenuri’s floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk saying Tuesday that Minbyun is being used by the communist country.

The UNHCR report also showed that global forced displacement has increased in 2015 to 65.3 million, marking a 5.8 million jump from the year before and an all-time high.

Some 21.3 million were refugees while another 40.8 million were internally displaced. About 86 percent of the world’s refugees were hosted by developing countries, the highest figure in more than two decades.

The leading hosts were Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon, each at 2.5 million, 1.6 million and 1.1 million.

An estimated 10 million were stateless in 2015, although the data garnered by the UNHCR was limited to only 3.7 million stateless individuals in 78 countries.

During 2015, 201,400 refugees were returned to their countries of origin. Most were from Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia, respectively at 61,400, 39,500 and 32,300.

Children unaccompanied by their guardians or separated from their families came to 98,400, the highest since the UNHCR started keeping records in 2006.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)