More upper-class people flee N. Korea

By Yi Whan-woo

More and more North Koreans from various social backgrounds are fleeing their country in pursuit of better lives in South Korea, the United States and other countries.

A teenage math prodigy refused to return home and has sought asylum at the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong after participating in the International Mathematics Olympiad there in early July, media outlets there reported Thursday.

Diplomatic sources said Friday that a top military officer and three diplomats fled from North Korea this month and are on their way to third countries via China.

Some other sources claimed a construction worker and two employees at a North Korean restaurant in Malta presumably defected to South Korea after deserting their respective workplaces between 2015 and early this year.

Noting that those defectors are from the middle- and upper-classes, analysts speculated that a growing number of North Koreans regardless of their backgrounds are unhappy with their country’s young leader Kim Jong-un in the wake of sanctions and the country’s accelerated isolation.

“Defectors in the past generally came from poor and socially-deprived families and fleeing their homeland was a matter of survival and an escape from poverty,” said An Chan-il, a defector-turned researcher at the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul. “In contrast, the latest cases show even the North Korean elite find their government untrustworthy and hopeless, and the only hope is to leave the country.”

The sources said the South Korean government is still working to find out what led the math prodigy to turn his back on his country. They pointed out that North Korea has recognized the role of math, science and engineering talent in its development of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies and therefore treated them well.

The prodigy, who is only identified as an 18-year-old, is also reportedly a family member of a high-ranking military official.

Regarding the case of a top military officer and three diplomats, some human rights activists claimed that the officer was a general who managed Kim’s illicit funds under Pyongyang’s powerful General Politics Bureau. He decided to escape while working in China and convinced the three diplomats to join him.

If confirmed, he will be North Korean military’s highest-ranking officer ever to defect. A colonel in the North Korean army fled to South Korea last year.

“Although North Korea has been controlling its citizens, the middle- and upper-class people have chances to travel abroad more often than those in the lower classes,” An said. “And that’s when they learn the truth about the regime, and decide to leave their country and seek freedom.”

Manual laborers overseas, such as construction workers and waitresses, are also believed to be picked from among middle and upper-class families.

Citing security reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it cannot “confirm the current status of the latest North Korean defectors” amid concerns over Pyongyang’s retaliation against their family members and those who it holds responsible.

In April, 13 North Korean workers who were employed at a restaurant owned by the North in Ningbo, China, defected to South Korea.

Choi Sung-ryong, a human rights activist, said the repressive state punished six officials in charge of the supervision of its workers overseas in May.

“The punishment took place in public while 80 other officials and family members of those who work abroad were watching,” Choi said.

Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University speculated that more defections are expected to come unless Kim Jong-un changes his “cruel and erratic” governing style.