N. Korean senior diplomat in Cuba defected to S. Korea last year: Seoul

The North Korean flag flutters above the North Korean consular office in Dandong, Liaoning province, China, April 20, 2021. (Reuters)

Ri Il-kyu, who was serving as a counselor at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, defected to South Korea in November of last year, South Korea's spy agency confirmed Tuesday.

This confirmation followed a report by the Chosun Ilbo daily, which interviewed the 52-year-old former diplomat who had fled to South Korea with his wife and children.

This is the first confirmed defection of a North Korean diplomat since 2019, when Jo Song-gil, then the acting ambassador to Italy, defected in July, followed by Ryu Hyun-woo, then the acting ambassador to Kuwait, in September of the same year.

Tae Yong-ho, formerly deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom for the North, who defected to Seoul in 2016, on Tuesday publicly welcomed Ri's defection.

In his interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Ri, along with Tae in a separate statement, jointly claimed that Ri's final major task at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba was to stymie the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba.

But Seoul and Havana formally forged diplomatic ties in February this year, three months after Ri's defection.

Ri and Tae also asserted that Ri had received a commendation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for resolving the 2013 detention of the North Korean ship Chong Chon Gang in Panama, which was secretly carrying surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets.

In his interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Ri said that he studied Spanish at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies before joining the Foreign Ministry in 1999. He served in Cuba for a total of about nine years over two periods: from September 2011 to January 2016 and from April 2019 to November 2023.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service did not confirm the motive behind Ri's defection. However, Ri revealed that his primary reason for defecting was an unfair performance assessment at the Foreign Ministry.

"The direct cause was the unfair evaluation of my efforts, leading to frustration and anger," Ri said in his interview, explaining that his disadvantage stemmed from "songbun," the social status assigned to North Koreans at birth.

Ri explained that the North Korean Foreign Ministry is dominated by children from influential families, while his clerical background is less favorable compared to workers or soldiers.

"I started at the lowest rank and worked diligently," Ri said.

But when Ri could not pay a substantial bribe to the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang, he received continual poor performance evaluations.

Ri also revealed that his final decision to flee North Korea came when the Foreign Ministry swiftly declined his request to travel to Mexico for treatment for nerve damage from a cervical spine injury.

"At that moment, I was furious and convinced that my decision to leave North Korea was the right one," Ri said in the interview, adding that the passing of his parents and in-laws also contributed to his decision.

By Ji Da-gyum(dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)