North Korea called the senior North Korean diplomat who defected earlier this week “human scum” and a criminal.
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“The fugitive was ordered in June to be summoned for embezzling a lot of state funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape”, KCNA said.
The statement, from the official Korean Central News Agency, was North Korea’s first reaction to the defection of Thae Yong Ho, its most senior official to defect in nearly two decades.
In another high-profile case, the South said last week that North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had defected to Seoul.
Choi Ju-hwal, a former North Korean senior army official who defected to the South Korea in 1995, speaks during an interview in Seoul August 18, 2016.
Technically, the North and South remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Any defection by a ranking member of an overseas North Korean mission would make waves, but London is considered a particularly prestigious posting that puts Thae’s move on a whole different level.
The news agency’s comments mark Pyongyang’s first public response to the high-level defection, which is a rare and damaging loss of diplomatic face for the North.
Thae, one of five diplomats serving at the embassy – aside from the ambassador – was tasked with keeping an eye on North Korean defectors in the British capital and is reported to have been active in the local community.
It is believed Thae was stationed for 10 years at North Korea’s embassy in London, where he was responsible for managing the image of North Korea, which has been criticized for its nuclear weapons program and its human rights record.
Pyongyang often accuses the South of kidnapping, or enticing its citizens to defect.
North Korea recently has expressed anger at a USA plan to place an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. It was the largest group defection since Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011. Also in April, Seoul announced that a colonel in North Korea’s military spy agency had defected to the South a year ago.
North Korea labeled a high-ranking United Kingdom -based diplomat “human scum” after he defected from the country and was sent to South Korea.
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Analysts said he had a privileged background and powerful connections with the ruling elite, and his defection represented the flight of some of the North’s best and brightest.
