Missing wife, son of North's diplomat arrested in Russia

According to a report by Radio Free Asia, 43-year-old Kim Kum-sun and 15-year-old Park Kwon-ju were arrested on July 7 after boarding a plane from Yemelyanovo International Airport, located on the outskirt of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

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. It reads, “On June 4, 2023, they left the North Korean Consulate which is on Nevskaya Str., 12. The situation is unknown so far.”

Two people believed to be the missing wife and son of a North Korean diplomat in Russia were arrested by Russian authorities.

The pair had reportedly been in hiding since June.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA), 43-year-old Kim Kum-sun and 15-year-old Park Kwon-ju were arrested on July 7 after boarding a plane from Yemelyanovo International Airport, located on the outskirt of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

They were headed to Moscow when the plane they were on was ordered back to the airport by Russian public security authorities, according to a witness.

The mother and son are reportedly being detained at the North Korean embassy in Moscow.

The arrest came a month after RFA first reported that Russian media had released a wanted poster of the two missing North Koreans.

The pair reportedly went into hiding after escaping from the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok, where they had been detained.

The mother and son are believed to be the family members of a North Korean diplomat who was called back to North Korea in 2019 and never returned to Russia after Pyongyang closed the country's border due to Covid-19.

The mother and son reportedly feared punishment, including possible execution, because the manager of a restaurant in Vladivostok the mother co-managed in her husband's absence had tried to defect in October.

The manager was arrested by Russian authorities two months after and was turned over to the North Korean consulate.

A source told RFA that the mother and son could have successfully escaped if it weren’t for the North Korean consulate getting the Russian authorities “involved.”

A source earlier told the JoongAng Ilbo that the diplomat might have tried to send his family to a third country in a hurried manner to avoid being blamed for the manager's defection attempt.

The South Korean government has made no statement regarding the issue.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]