Senior North Korean diplomat to Cuba defects to South

A senior North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea with his family in November, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to escape to the South since 2016.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and Cuban President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez hold up their hands as they watch a mass games performance in Pyongyang on Nov. 5, 2018, in a photo from the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper. [YONHAP]

A senior North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea with his family in November, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to escape to the South since 2016.

A counselor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the National Intelligence Service confirmed to the Korea JoongAng Daily on Tuesday. The defector, identified as 52-year-old Ri Il-gyu, who escaped with his wife and child, was first revealed in an interview with the local newspaper Chosun Ilbo earlier in the day.

A North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea in November last year, government sources confirmed Tuesday. In this 2013 photo of North Korean diplomats in Panama, Ri Il-gyu, the identified defector, is presumed to be the man on the left. [YONHAP]

Ri served in Cuba twice and is known as a veteran diplomat handling Latin American affairs in the North Korean Foreign Ministry.

Ri's defection is the fourth officially confirmed case of a North Korean diplomat defecting to the South under leader Kim Jong-un's rule. Previous high-profile defections include the North's former deputy ambassador to Britain, Tae Yong-ho, in 2016, Jo Song-gil, former acting ambassador to Italy in 2019, and former acting ambassador to Kuwait, Ryu Hyun-woo.

Ri is the highest-profile government official to defect from the totalitarian regime since Tae fled to South Korea in August 2016.

In the interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Ri cited demands for bribes and unfair job evaluations from the North Korean Foreign Ministry, as well as the North Korean authorities' refusal to treat his illness in Mexico, as reasons for his defection.

According to the report, Ri was tasked with preventing diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba before defecting. Despite being a traditional ally of North Korea, Cuba formally established diplomatic relations with South Korea in February. Processes are also underway to open a South Korean embassy in Cuba.

Ri received a commendation from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his role in freeing a seized North Korean ship caught carrying weapons from Cuba while attempting to pass through the Panama Canal in July 2013, the report said.

Ri told the newspaper that he believed Kim Jong-un's daughter, Kim Ju-ae, is unlikely to be a successor, as "to receive absolute authority and reverence, there needs to be an air of mystery," but exposing her now leaves no room for mystique or reverence.

Ri disclosed that Han Song-ryol, former director-general of the U.S. affairs department of the North's Foreign Ministry, was publicly executed in 2019 on charges of being a U.S. spy, and former foreign minister Ri Yong-ho was sent to a political prison camp with his family on corruption charges.

He emphasized that North Korean residents desire reunification even more than South Koreans.

"The answer is reunification; this is a shared belief among everyone," he said in the interview.

Defections by elite diplomats from North Korea's overseas embassies — considered outposts for external relations and foreign currency earnings — have increased in recent years despite the decreasing number of general defectors.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification says the number of elite North Korean defectors who entered South Korea last year was "around ten," the highest since 2017, despite the total number of defectors last year being only 17 percent of the 2017 number. This is interpreted as a result of North Korea's narrowed position in the international community stemming from its continued development of nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as diplomats reportedly being burdened with demands for bribes and loyalty funds from Pyongyang.

Tae Yong-ho, a former lawmaker of the president's People Power Party and former North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain. He is the highest-profile defector to come to South Korea to date. [NEWS1]

Tae, who defected to South Korea and was elected to a seat in the country's preceding National Assembly, welcomed Ri's defection in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

"My colleague Ri has finally 'come out' to South Korean society," Tae wrote.

He introduced Ri as an alumnus of the Pyongyang Foreign Language Institute that he and his family attended. He also said Ri was a "Cuba expert" in the North Korean Foreign Ministry recognized by both Kim Jong-un and his father, Kim Jong-il.

"Ri's last important task at the North Korean embassy in Cuba was to prevent the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba," Tae said. "Despite his efforts to implement Pyongyang's orders, he couldn't stop Cuba, whose heart was already set on South Korea."

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]