A former ranking North Korean official, who defected to South Korea and lived a quiet life with few ventures to outside, mainly for security reasons, made a rare excursion to a place where he could see the land he left behind, Yonhap reported Saturday.

Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to defect to South Korea, made a rare personal outing on Saturday to a newly-built apartment complex that offers a view of his former country.

"Former Secretary Hwang came to make this visit after he heard that there are apartments being built that offer a view of North Korea when the weather is good," An Hyeok, vice chief of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, a Seoul-based group of North Korean defectors headed by Hwang, said.

The apartment complex in Goyang, west of Seoul, is just 35 kilometers from the North Korean border town of Gaeseong, according to its developer, Doosan Engineering & Construction Co.

Hwang, 86, defected to the South in 1997 and currently lives under police protection in an unknown location. A murder threat ― an axe and a photo of Hwang painted in red ― was delivered to the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea in 2006. A South Korean man in September was sentenced to a 10-month jail term and fined for making the threat.