I don't have a link for that particular statistic, actually, and I do know that the percentages of returnees are much smaller in South Korea, no doubt because North Korean refugees are treated like **** in China. However, here's a panel by a North Korean scholar who basically points out that no, the North Korean state does not survive by mere repression and that they do inspire their people for...whatever North Korea does, and that unlike the Communist states, you are not going to bring down the North Koreans by parading the riches of the capitalist world. The North Koreans, at least those in Pyongyang, more or less already know, they just don't care.
Yes I have heard that NK refugees are not treated well in China. That may lead to a fair amount returning but that said the opportunities to earn some currency are far far greater in the PRC than in NK. Also my understanding is that there is essentially an underground railroad for getting NK refugees from the PRC to SK. I understand that NK citizens from an early age are heavily indoctrinated into belief in the state and that it is more than just ignorance of the outside world that keeps the state going but given the lack of information there is no doubt that there is ignorance about just how far they are behind their neighbors. Ideology certainly can sustain a regime but in the face of starvation I am not sure how long that goes when information becomes wide spread. I have a hard time believing that if NK completely opened its borders and allowed a free flow of information the Kim dynasty would last very long.
