Thae Yong-ho, the most senior North Korean official to defect to South Korea in almost two decades, is the son of Thae Byong-ryol, who fought the Japanese Imperial Army in the 1930s alongside North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, a source on North Korea said.
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The London-based diplomat, Thae Young-Ho, whose job was to burnish the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, arrived in South Korea this week.
Thae is the highest-ranking diplomat to defect from North Korea to the South, Seoul said.
Newspapers, TV and radio stations in North Korea did not mention Thae Yong-ho whatsoever, even though the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official news wire, blasted Seoul for using the diplomat to fuel anti-DPRK propaganda and create unsafe friction between the two Koreas.
Mr Jeong said Mr Thae’s defection reflected the loss of faith among North Korea’s elite in Kim Jong-un’s leadership. The spokesman said Thae made a decision to defect out of “disillusion” of the Kim regime and for the sake of the future of his children.
The embassies that are most economically stabile, the source said, are the ones stationed in China and Southeast Asia.
Other media reported that Thae probably faced increasing pressure since Kim Jong-un came to power and tougher global sanctions kicked in, which led to growing pressure from Pyongyang to send back more money.
The exercise did not draw any reaction, military or otherwise, from North Korea, which has been known to react angrily to exercises on the southern side of the tense border between the two Koreas.
Many North Koreans flee the country each year because of starvation and repression.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
“Most North Korean defectors have limited access to the inner workings of the North Korean regime”, he said.
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. “I think high-ranking officials living outside North Korea will continue to defect”, said Cheong Seong-chang of the elites, who make up some 30 percent of the population, according to the Korea Herald.
“With the start of the UFG drills tomorrow, we ask all citizens to be on guard for North Korean terror threats and cooperate with the government’s efforts”, said the ministry official.
The last such case was that of the North Korean ambassador to Egypt who defected to the United States in 1997.
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During his stint in London, a large part of Thae’s duties involved countering criticism of North Korea’s human rights record and other negative media coverage. Thae was thought to be one of the top experts on western Europe in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
