North Korea's deputy ambassador defects in London: reports

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Reuters

North Korea's deputy ambassador in London has defected with his family, according to media reports, and if confirmed it would be one of the most high-profile defections in recent years from the increasingly isolated country.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Tuesday that a high-profile diplomat in the UK defected with his wife and son to a "third country". The BBC named the defector as veteran diplomat Thae Yong Ho, a counselor at the North Korean embassy and deputy to the ambassador.

Quoting an unnamed source, JoongAng Ilbo said the diplomat embarked on a defection journey "following a scrupulous plan" and was in the process of "landing in a third country as an asylum seeker."

It was not clear from the newspaper report whether the third country was the UK. The term is usually used in South Korean media to refer to a country which is neither North nor South Korea.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-defector-idUKKCN10S0CY?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

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[TipTok]

1. I'm surprised they let the family out...

I thought SOP was to hold them hostage for just this scenario.

[melm00se]

2. If it wasn't before

it will be now

[lindysalsagal]

3. I hope he does press conferences and writes a book. Lots to learn, if he dares tell.

He probably has family back there he doesn't want hurt....

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. it was to South Korea, after all

A senior diplomat from the North Korean embassy in London has defected in the first case of its kind since official ties were established and the embassy opened 13 years ago.

Thae Yong Ho, who vanished earlier this month with his wife and children, was based at North Korea’s suburban embassy in Ealing, west London.

Seoul’s unification ministry confirmed on Wednesday he had recently defected to South Korea with his family.

Thae is the highest-level North Korean official to have defected to South Korea, Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman at the unification ministry, told a news conference.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/north-korean-diplomat-in-london-defects-says-south-korean-media

The BBC's correspondent says he thinks he's a nice guy, who seemed at home in English middle class suburbia:

My friend the North Korean defector

According to the South Korean media, the diplomat has defected because of pressure from Pyongyang to counter bad publicity. In this regard the BBC - to its great credit - may be to blame. On our last trip to North Korea, BBC reports upset the regime greatly. My colleague, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, was banned from the country for life and was lucky not to get hard labour.

I can imagine the phone calls: "How could you let this happen?" "Why did you trust the capitalist lackeys?" They had already said the opening of the BBC's new Korean Service would be viewed as an act of war.

If you were Mr Thae, what would you do? Get on the plane to Pyongyang to get more abuse and perhaps even severe punishment, or seek asylum with your family in the UK, or perhaps the US?

I do not know - but there's got to be a spy novel or a movie in it. Despite the skulduggery which Mr Thae may have been involved in, I like him. It should be a movie with a happy ending, perhaps with Mr Thae playing tennis in his later years, perhaps on the hard courts of South Korea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37098904

[Hortensis]

7. Yes, let's hope so. And that any family in NK is/are glad.

[sdfernando]

5. Hope they don't have any extended family left in NK

It is gonna be hell any of the relatives...may even be killed.

[TipTok]

6. Neighbors, classmates and the guy he sat next to on the bus...

Off to the camps...