 |
| A policeman stands guard outside the newly-opened North Korean Embassy in west London, Britain April 30, 2003. REUTERS photo |
North Korea’s deputy ambassador in London has defected with his family to South Korea, making him the highest-ranking Pyongyang diplomat ever to flee the isolated regime for the democratic South, South Korea said on Wednesday.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul declined to say when or how Thae and his family arrived, or how many relatives accompanied him.
Thae defected due to discontent with the regime of Kim Jong Un in North Korea and for the future of his child, ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told a news conference. It was not clear in Korean whether Jeong was referring to more than one child.
“We know that Deputy Ambassador Thae is saying that his distaste for the Kim Jong Un regime and yearning for the Republic of Korea’s free democratic system and the future of his child are motives for the defection,” Jeong said, referring to South Korea, adding that Thae and his family were under government protection.
Impoverished North Korea and prosperous South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
