North Korean defectors in South Korea mainly engage in menial jobs, earn only 40 percent of their South Korean counterparts, and more than three times unemployed, a survey showed, illustrating the difficulty they face in adapting to the capitalist economy.

The privately-run Database Center for North Korea Human Rights in Seoul found, in a survey of 361 North Korean defectors, that 9.5 percent of those capable of working were unemployed, far higher than the average jobless rate of about 3 percent among South Koreans, Yonhap reported Saturday.

Over 15,000 North Koreans currently live in South Korea after fleeing their communist homeland via China and other Asian neighbors. In the South, they undergo basic job training, but their earnings and job quality remain far below par.

An average defector earns $689 a month while his or her South Korean counterpart earns $1,667, and the number of partly employed is more than four times higher than the official South Korean average, the survey showed.

"North Korean defectors find it difficult to compete with South Koreans in age, educational background, training and career records," Huh Sun-haeng, an official with the center, said.