The reports follow the defection to South Korea this week of the North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain – one of the highest ranking diplomats to flee the isolated state.
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The North Korean statement said that Thae, whom it did not identify by name, had been ordered in June to return from Britain to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, because he had embezzled state funds, sold official secrets and sexually assaulted a minor.
Thae, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to South Korea with his wife and children, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry said Thae made a decision 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.
Experts pointed out that North Korea is experiencing a steady number of defections by upper-echelon members of society that could lead to social disintegration.
North Korea allows only citizens deemed most loyal to the regime to travel overseas, so Thae’s fleeing marks the latest in a series of embarrassing defections.
North Korea on Sunday blasted the largest ever artillery drill conducted by South Korea’s military as a grave provocation that is endangering regional peace.
“By attacking Thae and Seoul through the KCNA it is expressing its views without running the risk of ordinary people knowing about the desertion”, he said.
More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government, the AP reported.
Seoul said earlier this week that Thae’s defection reflected a loss of faith among North Korea’s elite in Kim Jong-Un’s leadership.
In April, a group of 13 North Koreans who worked in the same restaurant in an unspecified country defected to South Korea.
N Korea says diplomat defector “criminal” was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 21, 2016 and was last updated on August 21, 2016.
Long-time allies, the United States and South Korea, conduct annual military drills in the region, and have done so for decades.
The Pyongyang government also slammed the British government for disregarding global protocol and rejecting its demand to have Thae returned to North Korea, and instead handing him over to the South Koreans.
It also blamed South Korea for 2015’s exchange of fire and said that Seoul colluded with Washington to instigate the spike in tensions. “Thae’s sons had spent about 10 years overseas, and it might have been hard for them to go back to Pyongyang”, one expert on defector issues said.
The South Korean government, which has been taking a tough approach to North Korea since its nuclear test in January, used Thae’s escape to take another swipe at the government in Pyongyang.
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Jeong said Thae’s defection could be a sign that unity in Kim Jong Un’s ruling class is weakening.
