North Korea’s deputy ambassador to UK defects to South with family
The BBC named the defector as veteran diplomat Thae Yong-ho, who was well-known to the British press, acting as the embassy’s main point of contact for British correspondents travelling to Pyongyang
South Korea said North Korea’s deputy ambassador in London, Thae Yong Ho, had arrived with his family in South Korea, making him the highest-ranking diplomat ever to defect to the South
Thae defected to the South due to discontent with the regime and for the future of his child, Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman at the South’s Unification Ministry, told a news conference.
Jeong declined to give details on the timing of Thae’s arrival or his itinerary.
“They are currently under government protection and relevant institutions are going ahead with necessary procedures as usual,” Jeong said
Earlier, media reports said North Korea’s deputy ambassador in London defected with his family, which if confirmed would make it one of the most high-profile defections in recent years from the increasingly isolated country.
South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Tuesday that a high-profile diplomat in the UK defected with his wife and son to a “third country”. The BBC named the defector as veteran diplomat Thae Yong-ho, a counsellor at the North Korean embassy and deputy to the ambassador.
Quoting an unnamed source, JoongAng Ilbo said the diplomat embarked on a defection journey “following a scrupulous plan” and was in the process of “landing in a third country as an asylum seeker.”
It was not clear from the newspaper report whether the third country was the UK. The term is usually used in South Korean media to refer to a country which is neither North nor South Korea.
An official at the North Korean embassy in London would not confirm the defection, describing reports of the event as “quite sudden”.
“If it is appropriate to give a response, then you might hear about our response,” the official said.
Further calls to the embassy went unanswered. Calls to Thae’s mobile phone were redirected to a voicemail inbox.
If confirmed, the defection would be a coup for British and other western intelligence agencies. John Nilsson-Wright, the head of the Asia programme at Chatham House , said the diplomat could have useful insider information on Kim Jong-un’s secretive regime.
“These senior officials are smart, accomplished, well-trained individuals with high levels of English. If sent abroad they don’t spend their time going to cocktail parties. They will be energetic in other activities, including using foul means or fair,” he said.
Thae’s reported defection follows a string of recent such flights by North Koreans, including twelve waitresses at a North Korean restaurant in China who defected to South Korea earlier this year.
Those waitresses have finished a prolonged period of investigation and will soon enter into normal society, an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Wednesday.
The number of defections by North Koreans to the South has totalled 814 up to and including July this year, an annual increase of 15 per cent, a Unification Ministry official said.
Overall, the number of defectors, mostly from the area near North Korea’s border with China, has declined since leader Kim took power following his father’s death in late 2011.
Among his many responsibilities, Thae was well-known to the British press, acting as the embassy’s main point of contact for British correspondents travelling to Pyongyang.
South Korea rejects North Korea’s unusual offer to reunite defectors with family
The British Embassy in Seoul said it was aware of the reports of a defection but would not comment. South Korea’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm or discuss specific defection cases.
The US Central Intelligence Agency said it had no comment on the reports.
Thae lived at or near the North Korean embassy, which is in the leafy west London suburb of Gunnersbury. He spoke regularly at far-left events in London, including meetings of a British communist party where he would make impassioned speeches in defence of North Korea, according to videos of the events.
His measured tone was in contrast to the bombastic rhetoric often used by Pyongyang officials, although at some events he sang revolutionary Red Army Choir songs in Korean.
In regular contact with the media, Thae also spoke publicly about media coverage of the isolated country, including the press appetite for sensationalist stories about North Korea.
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“I don’t blame reporters,” Thae said during a speech at a left-wing London bookshop in late 2014.
“If they broadcast (North Korea) as it is, the editors of these TV stations and newspapers will (change it)”.
“The more horrifying, the more shocking stories they create, the more they will be viewed by the British public”.
Why the diplomat had defected is an open question, Nilsson-Wright said. The reasons might be personal or political or both – from wanting a better life outside North Korea in retirement to being under too much pressure. The country’s embassies are typically poor, with officials instructed to raise cash using all possible means.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
