North Korean diplomat's wife, son disappear in Russia

Family members of a North Korean diplomat have reportedly gone missing in Russia, raising suspicions that they may have defected before the North reopens its borders and orders them to return.

Russian media released this leaflet showing Kim Kum-sun, 43, and Park Kwon-ju, 15, who are the wife and son of a North Korean trade representative in Vladivostok, Russia, Radio Free Asia reports. It reads, “On June 4, 2023, they left the North Korean Consulate which is on Nevskaya str., 12. The situation is unknown so far.” [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Family members of a North Korean diplomat have reportedly gone missing in Russia.

Experts say they may have defected, fearing they might be ordered to return home once the North reopens its borders.

Russian authorities have issued a missing persons alert Tuesday for Kim Kum-sun, 43, wife of a North Korean diplomat surnamed Park, and their 15-year-old son, Park Kwon-ju.

Park, a North Korean trade representative, has been back in the North since 2019, according to Radio Free Asia, while his wife and son remained in Vladivostok, Russia. The family was reportedly stationed in the Russian city to run Koryo and Tumen River restaurants.

Kim and Park reportedly went missing after exiting a cab not far from the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok on Sunday.

Some South Korean government sources said the pair were likely to be en route to defection for fear of punishment upon their return to the North.

One of the managers of a Vladivostok restaurant operated by Park, and Kim after Park had returned to the North, had tried to escape and was caught by the authorities last March.

“There is a possibility that Park sent the family members to a third country in a hurried manner because they are likely to be blamed for the defection attempts,” a source told the JoongAng Ilbo.

There were also reports that Kim and her son Park were held under close watch at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok and that they had escaped on the one day of the week they were allowed outdoors.

"From the mother's perspective, she was choosing between defection and watching her son, just 15, suffer under punishment," said Kang Dong-wan, a professor at Dong-A University who has been looking into various cases of North Korean overseas workers.

The worst-case scenario of the entire family being executed upon their return to the North may not have been entirely out of the question, said an activist who regularly works with defectors on the condition of anonymity.

According to some of these experts, Pyongyang was likely cooperating closely with Russian authorities to track Kim and Park down. In the case of their restaurant manager who tried to defect, the local authorities tracked him down in two months before he could leave Russia.

Although the rate of defection had dwindled since the North closed its borders during the pandemic, there were still cases of defection by overseas workers in the past few years, such as the group of North Korean workers in Vladivostok who defected to the South last November. “The overseas workers are key for the Kim Jong-un regime to rake in the money to sustain itself, but the regime also considers them as a doubled-ended knife because they bring in capitalist ideas and fashion,” a South Korean government official told the JoongAng Ilbo.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Thursday morning that it cannot confirm anything regarding the case as of the hour.

BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO,ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]