Thae Yong-ho, the second highest official at the North Korean embassy in the U.K, has been identified as the North Korean diplomat seeking asylum in a third country.
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Mr. Thae arrived with his wife and his son, who lived with him London, and is in the custody of the South Korean government, the spokesman, Jeong Joon-Hee, said.
While posted in London, Thae’s job was to rebut criticism of his country’s human rights record as well as to keep track of North Korean defectors in the UK.
Thirteen North Koreans who escaped from a restaurant in China’s Ningbo left a halfway house in South Korea last Thursday and began the process of settling into their new lives, it emerged on Tuesday.
South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Tuesday that a high-profile diplomat in the United Kingdom defected with his wife and son to a “third country”, according to Reuters.
Over the years, almost 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression in their country and settled in the South. Kim’s regime has resumed production of plutonium and has no plans to stop its nuclear tests – it conducted its fourth earlier this year – as long as perceived threats from the US continue, Kyodo News reported Wednesday, citing North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute.
North Korea, known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is described as a totalitarian dictatorship, with leader Kim Jong-un holding supreme power and all communication and media in the country strictly controlled. Hwang’s 1997 defection was hailed by many South Koreans as an intelligence bonanza and a sign that the North’s political system was inferior to the South’s.
“The North Korean embassy made belated attempts to figure out the diplomat’s whereabouts, but failed”, it said.
The diplomat, Thae Yong Ho, had served as deputy to the ambassador and was responsible for promoting the image of his country to British audiences.
Several analysts questioned whether a defection by Thae signals discontent with the current regime.
“They also say Thae’s defection signals weakening support for Kim among North Korean elites”. Previously, he worked at its now-closed embassy in Denmark and spent a short period of time at its embassy in Sweden, it said. North Korea often accuses the South of kidnapping or enticing its citizens to defect. They are now being allowed to start resettlement applications in South Korea. “If they broadcast (North Korea) as it is, the editors of these TV stations and newspapers will (change it)”.
South Korea is due to receive increased air defence capabilities from the U.S.as a result, which has further amped up the threatening rhetoric from the North’s regime.
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And in recent missile tests, North Korea has fired: mobile missiles that are hard to track, submarine launched missiles, also hard to track, and intercontinental missiles that can potentially reach Alaska.
