The North Korean ambassador to Kuwait left the south in a sign of rebellion against Kim Jong Un.
Ryu Hyun Woo arrived in South Korea in September 2019, but has only just been revealed by Tae Yong Ho, a fellow deserter from the Hermit Kingdom who is now a legislator in Seoul.
“I decided to default because I wanted to offer my son a better future,” Ryu said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing the newspaper Maeil Business.
Ryu had led the North Korean embassy in Kuwait since former ambassador So Chang Sik was ousted after a 2017 UN resolution sought to reduce the country’s diplomatic missions.
It is considered a key message because Kuwait is an important source of foreign exchange for Pyongyang, which has sent thousands of workers there.
Ryu is also the son-in-law of Jon Il Chun, who once oversaw a Labor Party office responsible for managing the Kim family’s secret coffers, called Room 39.
His desertion could be a sign that the North Korean elite betting on Kim’s power base is moving away from him, Tae said.
Some 30,000 North Koreans have fled repression and poverty under the communist regime and settled in the capitalist south, according to AFP.
In early 2019, North Korean Ambassador to Italy Jo Song Gil disappeared with his wife from the embassy and resurfaced in South Korea.
Tae was also a deserter, fleeing his position as North Korea’s sub-ambassador to Britain before moving south in 2016.
Now a southern politician, he encourages others to follow his path to a new life.
“I want to communicate to my colleagues working around the world and to North Korean elites that there is an alternative to North Korea and that the door is open,” Tae said in an interview at the recent Reuters Next conference .
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
With publishing cables