A high-profile North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba has defected to South Korea, Seoul’s spy agency said. The political counselor is believed to be the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to escape to South Korea since 2016. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the diplomat defected in November.
Details about North Korean defections often take months to emerge, as defectors must undergo courses on South Korean society before formal integration. South Korean media reports say the defector was a counselor responsible for political affairs at the North Korean embassy in Cuba.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper identified the diplomat as 52-year-old Ri Il Kyu, who defected due to “disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future.” His work reportedly involved preventing Havana from forging official diplomatic ties with Seoul. However, in February, the two governments established official relations, seen as a setback for Pyongyang.
“Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The last known high-profile defection to the South was Tae Yong-ho in 2016, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom.
On Sunday, South Korea marked its first North Korean Defectors’ Day ceremony. Addressing the ceremony, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised better financial support for North Korean defectors and tax incentives for companies hiring them.
Ri’s defection comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has formally abandoned the goal of reunification with the South and recently branded Seoul as “Enemy Number One”—a dramatic turnaround from just six years ago when he met then South Korean leader Moon Jae In.
Since then, rhetoric on both sides of the border has intensified. The two countries floated propaganda balloons along their border towns, with those from the North containing trash and parasites. Earlier in June, Pyongyang claimed to have test-fired an advanced nuclear warhead missile.
