Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, said a commentary released by the official news agency KCNA.
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Thae is the highest-level diplomat to defect from isolated North Korea to the rival, democratic South, according to the South Korean government.
In an interview to the American news outlet, Liberty in North Korea director of Research and Strategy, Sokeel Park, said the defection “could lead to threats of retaliation from North Korea”.
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.
TOKYO (AP) The defection of a North Korean senior diplomat in London poses a major problem for Pyongyang on a number of fronts not least of which is how to publicly respond. Thae had spoken publicly about living in London with his wife and said that his son attended high school in Acton, in west London.
The most senior diplomat ever to defect from North Korea – described as a “tough” and “sophisticated” negotiator by a former British envoy – has abandoned his post as deputy ambassador in London.
His stay in London spanned almost 10 years, during which he has been actively engaged in a campaign to promote North Korea’s national image against the backdrop of growing global pressure in the wake of North Korea’s relentless nuclear program.
It also slammed South Korea’s coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish the North Korea’s image. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and Seoul been working hard to apply more worldwide pressure on the North. However, Washington and Seoul denounced it as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Many North Koreans flee the country each year because of starvation and repression.
The two countries occasionally exchange gunfire along the frontier and near a disputed maritime border.
The diplomatic fallout was toxic enough to kill off the sole remaining North-South cooperation project – the Kaesong joint industrial zone, which had managed to ride out pretty much every inter-Korean crisis thrown up since it opened for business in 2004.
Few North Koreans get the chance to travel overseas, but the government grants permits for those likely to bring revenue to the state.
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Millions of Koreans were separated from their families during the 1950-53 Korean War. He was known to have been at the North’s reconnaissance bureau tasked with carrying out espionage missions against the South.
