British journalists who met him described Thae as likeable, urbane and highly articulate – qualities that come across in a series of talks posted on YouTube in which, among other things, he compares life in Britain and North Korea.
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Kim says South Korean President Park Geun-hye is trying to seduce North Korean diplomats around the world with money or women.. Overseas study is allowed to only a select group in the country of those who are very close to the leadership through their family backgrounds. Oh Kum-chol. Multiple high-profile North Korean defectors said on August 18 that Thae’s wife, also surnamed Oh, was a relative of Oh Paek-ryong, a veteran of the anti-Japanese partisan battle alongside former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. Previously, he worked at its now-closed embassy in Denmark and spent a short period of time at its embassy in Sweden, it said. The North has warned of unspecified retaliation and fired several missiles into the sea earlier this month.
“What should not be overlooked is that the puppet forces opened to public the shelling drill and are claiming that it demonstrated their “will to cope with” the “mine explosion” and “shelling provocation” in August a year ago”, the KCNA article read. Of particular concern to Pyongyang is the installation of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, a move that has also been criticized by Russian Federation and China as potentially threating their national security.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
As such, his defection is seen as “deeply embarrassing” for the Kim government, according to John Nilsson-Wright, the head of the Asia program at Chatham House. Thae, the ministry added, “respects the democratic system of South Korea and for the sake of the future of his family, he defected”. “But this year, the number trickled to less than half”, said one staff member at a travel agency.
With recent desertion cases involving well-to-do citizens, the ratio has risen even more lately, Yoon said, without disclosing exact data.
Today’s statement was Pyongyang’s first reaction to Seoul’s announcement last week that the 12 restaurant staff and their manager had been released from government custody.
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Thae Yong Ho, a career diplomat, was a key official at the embassy, in a residential area of west London, and is thought to have escorted Kim Jong Chol, the North Korean leader’s older brother, during his trip to the United Kingdom a year ago to attend an Eric Clapton concert.
