A senior North Korean diplomat has defected to South Korea with his family, reports said yesterday.
In September 2019, then-North Korean acting ambassador to Kuwait Ryu Hyun-woo reached South Korea and sought asylum, but his arrival was kept secret until now, the Maeil Business daily reported.
Defections by senior officials are rare, although Ryu’s arrival came just two months after then-North Korean acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil sought asylum from Seoul.
“I decided to defect because I wanted to offer my child a better future,” the Maeil Business quoted Ryu as saying.
He became temporary acting ambassador in September 2017 after Kuwait expelled ambassador So Chang-sik following the Persian Gulf nation’s adoption of a UN resolution over Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
Ryu is the son-in-law of Jon Il-chun, the former head of Office 39, which manages the secret funds of the North Korean leadership, reports said.
Tae Yong-ho, another high-profile defector who fled his post as North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UK in 2016 and was elected a South Korean opposition lawmaker last year, described Ryu as part of Pyongyang’s “core elite.”
However, he added: “No matter how privileged your life is in North Korea, your mind changes when you go abroad and draw comparisons.”
The North has tightened border security as part of its defenses against COVID-19, and the number of arrivals to the South plummeted last year.
However, Tae said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “will not be able to stop North Koreans who long for freedom from going to South Korea forever.”
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