North Korea's envoy defected to South Korea, reports say

A top North Korean diplomat based in Cuba defected to South Korea along with his family in November, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.

Ri Il Kyu, who is 52 years old, escaped to South Korea because he was disillusioned with North Korea's political system, he told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. 

South Korea's spy agency, National Intelligence Service, also confirmed the media reports but did not provide further information.

The defection of the senior diplomat makes him the highest-ranking official known to flee to South Korea since 2016, when Tae Yong Ho, then a minister at the North Korean embassy in London, defected to the South.

Why did Ri defect?

In an exclusive interview with Chosun Ilbo, Ri said he took the decision after Pyongyang rejected his request to seek medical treatment in Mexico following an injury, when he could not receive the necessary treatment in Cuba.

He claimed as well to have received unfair performance reviews after he rejected a senior foreign ministry official's demand for bribes in 2019.

The South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported that Ri decided to escape to South Korea after disputes with North Korean Foreign Ministry officials about his job evaluations, citing an anonymous government source.

"Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea," Ri told Chosun Ilbo. "Disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future led me to consider defection."

Ri's tasks at the North Korean embassy in Cuba included blocking Seoul and Havana from forging diplomatic ties, Chosun Ilbo reported. Relations between the two countries were established in February.

"I bought flight tickets and called my wife and kid to tell them about my decision, six hours before the defection. I didn't say South Korea, but said, let's live abroad," he told local media.

South Korea's unification ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, has yet to confirm reports of Ri's defection.

Sharp decline in number of defectors

Ri's defection is the latest case of a high-profile escape to the South. 

About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War in the 1950s. However, fewer North Koreans have recently been able to successfully cross over because of stricter border security and high broker fees, experts say.

Only 196 North Koreans defected to the South last year, down from as many as 2,700 a decade ago, according to South Korea's official data.

Most of the defectors whose cases come to light are those who have lived overseas for many years, human rights activists say.

mfi/rmt (AFP, AP, Reuters)