North Korea’s ambassador to Kuwait defected to the South in an ongoing sign of rebellion against Kim Jong-un.
Ryu Hyun Woo reached South Korea in September 2019, but it has only just been revealed by Tae Yong Ho, a fellow Hermit Kingdom defector who is now lawmaker in Seoul.
“I decided to defect because I wanted to give my child a better future,” Ryu said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), referring to the Maeil Business newspaper.
Ryu had headed North Korea’s embassy in Kuwait since former ambassador So Chang Sik was expelled after a 2017 UN resolution sought to scrap the country’s overseas diplomatic missions.
It is considered an important item because Kuwait is a major source of foreign currency for Pyongyang, which has sent thousands of workers there.
Ryu is also the son-in-law of Jon Il Chun, who once oversaw a Workers’ Party office responsible for managing the secret treasuries of the ruling Kim family called Room 39.
His death could be a sign that the North Korean elite supporting Kim’s power base are drifting away from him, Tae said.
According to AFP, about 30,000 North Koreans have fled oppression and poverty under the communist regime and have settled in the capitalist south.
In early 2019, North Korea’s ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, disappeared from the embassy with his wife and resurfaced in South Korea.
Tae was also a defector and fled his position as DPRK’s deputy ambassador to Britain before settling in the South in 2016.
Now a politician in the South, he encourages others to follow his path to a new life.
“I want to make it clear to my colleagues who work around the world and the North Korean elites that there is an alternative to North Korea, and the door is open,” Tae said in an interview at the recent Reuters Next conference.
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
With pole wires