Authorities look into S. Korean's defection to NK

Choe In-guk, the son of former South Korean Foreign Minister Choe Dok-shin, expresses his thoughts at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport upon his arrival there, Sunday. The North's propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, released footage of him after he defected to North Korea via an unidentified route. Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

Kim Yeon-chul

The South Korean government and intelligence authorities are looking into additional details over a South Korean national's recent defection to North Korea.

The Ministry of Unification confirmed, Monday, Choe In-guk arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday for permanent resettlement following similar footsteps taken by his parents decades earlier.

The ministry said it was “realistically impossible” for it to monitor every movement of South Korean citizens.

“It is difficult for the government to keep updating the whereabouts of an individual citizen,” Unification Ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min said in a briefing Monday. “We are teaming up with related organizations to look into details surrounding the case.”

Choe's defection to the North came at a time when inter-Korean relations are showing signs of recovery following U.S. President Donald Trump's historic visit to the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas last month.

Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un there, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in nearby. At that time, Trump and Kim reached an agreement to break their months-long nuclear stalemate and resume working-level talks in the next few weeks.

The Trump-Kim encounter also raised hopes for improvements to inter-Korean relations. The ministry declined to comment on whether Choe's defection will have any influence on the relationship between the two Koreas.

“It is not proper for us to make comments on the issue at a time when details over the incident have yet to be clearly identified,” an official from the ministry said.

But it appears the incident will have a limited impact on the inter-Korean relationship, as Choe's parents formed a close relationship with the North's leadership during their lifetime.

The ministry said no specific reasons regarding his defection to the North have been unveiled as of Monday. The arrival of Choe was initially reported by a North Korean state-controlled propaganda media outlet. The South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) is known to be looking into details surrounding how he arrived in the North and whether he was accompanied by any family members. Choe did not seek approval from the South Korean government, which Seoul said was illegal.

According to photos released by the North's propaganda Uriminzokkiri, Sunday, Choe was seen reading a statement at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport upon his arrival there. For this reason, it is highly likely that he reached the North's capital by taking an airplane from a third country, such as China.

Choe In-guk is the son of Choe Dok-shin, the South's former foreign minister who served between October 1961 and March 1963 under a military dictatorship during that period. Dok-shin and his wife, however, moved to the United States in 1976 before emigrating to the North in 1986.

The parents of Choe In-guk lived out their lives in the North, and this is known to have affected his recent defection. Both of them were able to take on ranking positions in the North. Deok-shin particularly worked as vice chairman of the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

Choe In-guk visited the North on multiple occasions after receiving official approvals from the South Korean government. According to the unification ministry, he has visited the North 12 times since 2001.

His request for a visit to the North was approved in late 2016 when the relationship between the two Koreas remained icy.

“I arrived in Pyongyang to settle in North Korea where my parents' remains are buried,” Choe In-guk said in footage released by the propaganda outlet.