A senior North Korean diplomat moved to the South in 2019
It is estimated that around 30,000 North Koreans have fled repression and poverty in their country to the South, most of them first crossing the border with China.
AP - Jon Chol Jin
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
This senior North Korean diplomat was acting as ambassador to Kuwait.
He defected in 2019 and joined South Korea with his family, a South Korean media reported on Monday, January 25.
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“I decided to defect because I wanted to give my child a better future.
Ryu Hyun-woo arrived in South Korea in September 2019, where he applied for political asylum, according to the daily
Maeil Business,
but his arrival had been kept secret.
He assumed the interim head of the embassy in September 2017 after Kuwait expelled diplomat So Chang-sik, following the UN adoption of sanctions against Pyongyang in connection with its nuclear programs. and ballistics.
Media portray Ryu Hyun-woo as the stepson of Jon Il-chun, the former boss of Office 39, which manages the secret funds of North Korean leaders.
It would therefore be, if it is confirmed, a very important defection which would be reminiscent of that in 2016 of the former number two of the North Korean Embassy in Great Britain,
Tae Yong-ho
, one of the top North Korean diplomats to have defected in recent years.
Elected last year as an MP, Tae introduced Ryu as belonging to
the
regime's
“
heart of the elite
”.
Dream of freedom
"
Whatever the privileges you can enjoy in North Korea,
believes Tae Yong-ho,
your mind can only change when you go abroad and make the comparison.
"
The North has tightened restrictions and border controls as part of the fight against the coronavirus, and the number of North Koreans crossing to the South has dropped significantly over the past year.
But for Tae, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “
will not always be able to prevent North Koreans who dream of freedom from going to South Korea.
"
Inter-Korean relations cooled
It is estimated that around 30,000 North Koreans have fled repression and poverty in their country to the South, most of them first crossing the border with China.
High officials' defections are rare.
Ryu Hyun-woo's arrival, however, came several months after former acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil also sought asylum in the South.
While
remarkable easing
appeared on the peninsula in 2018 in the wake of the Winter Olympics, inter-Korean relations have cooled considerably since the failure of the second summit between Kim Jong-un and former US President Donald Trump in February 2019 in Hanoi.
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To read also: The defection of the North Korean diplomat Jo Song Gil, a diplomatic puzzle
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