Seoul reported that a senior North Korean diplomat living in London defected to South Korea.
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Pyongyang and Seoul remain technically at war since the Korean War (1950-53) ended with an armistice that was never replaced with a definitive peace treaty. If it is true, Thae would become the highest-ranking DPRK diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
It made for a threatening show of strength against North Korean President Kim Jong-un, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
South Korea announced Thae and his family arrived in the country on Wednesday as he explained his reason for defecting to South Korea spokesman Jeong Joon-hee.
North Korea has labelled South Korea a “warmonger” and slammed the ROK in state media on Thursday for staging its largest ever artillery exercise, held on the peninsula on the same day.
Last month, US Army Secretary Eric Fanning, acknowledged that despite plans to scale down the size of the US army, the US has increased its presence in Asia-Pacific.
The KCNA news agency said British officials had been informed of his alleged crimes.
“Steve Evans, a South Korean correspondent for BBC, wrote in an article published Tuesday that he has pleasant memories” with Thae and that “the signs were there” that the diplomat thought about defecting to South Korea. “I told him it was a mega-bustling city, a world away from Pyongyang”.
The ministry said Thae chose to defect because of his disgust with the Kim Jong-Un regime, his yearning for South Korean democracy and concerns about his children’s future, Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported. Meanwhile, reports are emerging that an official at the North Korean embassy in Russian Federation also recently defected, with some saying at least seven diplomats have fled this year. Short on cash, most diplomats smuggle money out of their home countries through illegal channels, according to the report. Later that month, South Korea revealed that a colonel in North Korea’s military spy agency had defected a year ago.
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The embassies that are most economically stabile, the source said, are the ones stationed in China and Southeast Asia.
