By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea s acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to South Korea, the latest in a recent string of high-profile escapes from the isolated country, a South Korean lawmaker said on Monday. Ryu Hyun Woo had led North Korea s embassy in Kuwait since former Ambassador So Chang Sik was expelled after a 2017 U.N. resolution sought to scale back the country s overseas diplomatic missions. Ryu defected to South Korea last September, according to Tae Yong Ho, who was North Korea s deputy ambassador to Britain before settling in the South in 2016 and being elected as a lawmaker last year. Kuwait had been a key source of foreign currency for Pyongyang, which sent thousands of labourers there, mostly for construction projects. Tae said Ryu is also the son-in-law of Jon Il Chun, who once oversaw a Worker s Party bureau responsible for managing the ruling Kim family s secret coffers, dubbed Room 39. The National Intelligence Service declined to comment. Ryu s de
SEOUL (AFP): A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to the South with his family, reports said Monday (Jan 25).
The diplomats flight could be a sign of elite disillusionment said an earlier defector
25 January 2021 • 4:31pm
North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait reportedly defected with his family to South Korea in 2019, the latest in a series of revelations of escapes by top officials that are expected to infuriate the authoritarian regime.
The secret defection of Ryu Hyun-woo was unveiled on Monday by two sources in the defector community, and raises questions about the loyalty of the country’s elite to the ruling Kim dynasty at a time when the country is beset with crippling financial woes.
Mr Ryu was serving as the embassy’s charge d’affaires after So Chang-sik, the ambassador, was expelled from Kuwait because of a 2017 United Nations resolution aimed at curbing the pariah state’s overseas diplomatic missions.