N. Korea diplomat defects to South Korea

Thae Yong-ho

By Kim Hyo-jin

A senior North Korean diplomat in London has defected to South Korea with his family members, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.

“Thae Yong-ho, a deputy ambassador at the North Korean embassy in the United Kingdom, has recently entered into the country with his wife and children,” Jeong Joon-hee, a ministry spokesman, said at a press conference. “They are now under the government’s protection and undergoing the necessary procedures for settlement here.”

Thae is the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat ever to defect to South Korea, the spokesman said. He is the No.2 man at the North Korean embassy in London after Ambassador Hyon Hak-bong.

Jeong, however, refused to answer on when or how Thae’s family arrived in Seoul, citing security reasons.

The defection follows the U.N. Security Council imposing tougher sanctions on Pyongyang for its nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch the following month.

It stirred anxiety among the North Korean elite working overseas, according to North Korea experts.

Asked about the motive for Thae’s defection, Jeong said, “According to Thae, he was fed up with the Kim Jong-un regime, and aspired for freedom in South Korea, and thought about his children’s future.”

He added, “The case reflects that North Korea’s elite see little hope in Kim’s regime, and that solidarity among them is weakening.”

The case follows a string of defections including 12 waitresses who used to work at a North Korean restaurant in China and flew to Seoul in April. They reportedly have no lower than middle-class family backgrounds.

Thae disappeared from his home in west London several weeks ago along with his wife and children, the BBC said earlier.

The diplomat had reportedly lived in Britain for a decade and had been tasked with promoting the image of North Korea to the British people. He was scheduled to finish his term there this summer and return to his home country, it said.

An Chan-il, a defector and researcher at the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul, said, “The elite who have a chance to live overseas easily realize the ironies of the North Korean regime and they eventually opt for defection, seeing no hope, especially concerning education for their children.”

The number of North Korean defectors in 2016 is estimated to be 815 by July, a 15.6 percent rise compared to the same period last year, according to the unification ministry.

“The number is surely on the rise,” Jeong said, concerning the data. “It has to do with a sense of pressure among North Koreans amid toughened international sanctions against the isolated country.”