SEOUL, South Korea — When Ri Il Gyu, North Korea’s No. 2 diplomat in Cuba, lastly determined to flee to South Korea in frustration over his extremely repressive, corrupt homeland in November, he completed all crucial prep work alone. A couple of week later, he informed his household to be prepared to go away Cuba collectively in lower than eight hours.
“My spouse first informed me to not make such a dreadful joke. So I confirmed her our aircraft tickets, and he or she was speechless,” Ri mentioned Friday in an interview with The Related Press. “I informed my child that there is no such thing as a future or hope for North Korea.”
His household adopted him to a Havana airport at daybreak the following day, taking a flight to a 3rd nation after which South Korea in one of the high-profile and dramatic defections by North Koreans lately.
The defection by Ri — a former political counselor on the North’s Embassy in Cuba — was solely made public in July. It seemingly has angered North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, as a result of it may immediate his different diplomats to observe go well with in a blow to his grip on the nation’s elites, observers say. Ri mentioned the North Korean Embassy in Cuba has about 20 diplomats, making it the North’s third-biggest mission overseas after China and Russia.
Ri, 52, is the highest-ranking North Korean to defect to South Korea since Tae Yongho, a former minister of the North Korean Embassy in London, arrived in South Korea in 2016.
The information of Ri’s defection got here as animosity between the rival Koreas soared to one of many highest factors in years, with North Korea flying trash-carrying balloons towards South Korea and persevering with its provocative weapons assessments. South Korea responded by restarting front-line loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-Pyongyang messages and Okay-pop songs, a problem to Kim’s efforts to restrict entry to overseas information for his 26 million individuals.
“The Kim Jong Un regime will seemingly be in a really unhealthy temper in the event that they see me talking publicly in media interviews like this,” Ri mentioned. “They could assume it is of their curiosity to eradicate an individual like me. However I am not going to fret about that a lot, as a result of the South Korean authorities has made a precedence of conserving me secure.”
About 9 months after his arrival in South Korea, Ri is below a South Korean authorities safety program. North Korea allegedly has a protracted historical past of assassinating or making makes an attempt to kill high-level defectors, the estranged relations of the Kim household dwelling overseas, and prime South Korean officers.
Kim may personally keep in mind Ri, as a result of Ri mentioned he briefly met Kim many occasions with different officers in 2018 over preparations to obtain prime Cuban officers on two events. Typically Kim requested him questions.
In every assembly, Ri recalled that Kim smoked repeatedly and was wanting breath like “an asthmatic affected person” so he may hear the rasp of Kim’s respiration. South Korea’s spy company informed lawmakers Monday that North Korean officers are in search of new medicines overseas to deal with Kim’s suspected obesity-related well being issues comparable to hypertension and diabetes.
“On the first assembly, I clearly shuddered although it wasn’t like I couldn’t reply. However in the course of the second and third conferences, I didn’t shudder.”
Ri mentioned he had lengthy thought of fleeing North Korea, which he referred to as “a world of darkness” and “a republic of corruption.” He mentioned his month-to-month pay was about $500 so he smuggled Cuban cigars to China through diplomatic pouches to make a dwelling. He mentioned North Korean diplomats in different international locations have been concerned within the smuggling of ivories, rhino horns, whiskeys and cars.
However he mentioned what decisively triggered his defection was the North Korean International Ministry’s rejection in early November of his hope to go to Mexico to deal with a ruptured disc in his neck. Ri suspected his boss in Pyongyang was behind that call as a result of Ri earlier had refused his boss’ request for bribe.
“That made me so mad,” Ri mentioned. With out that incident, “I most likely would have saved enthusiastic about defecting, however with out ever leaving.”
Ri’s defection got here earlier than Cuba established diplomatic ties with South Korea in February. As there was no South Korean Embassy in Cuba at the moment, he mentioned he could not get as a lot assist from South Korean diplomats as different North Korean defectors managed to get elsewhere.
South Korean officers have been ultimately concerned in Ri’s defection. However the authorities in Seoul and Ri declined to offer particulars about that as a result of that would trigger potential diplomatic troubles for international locations concerned, and will assist North Korea thwart future escape makes an attempt by different North Koreans.
On the Havana airport, Ri mentioned he and his household waited for the aircraft for an hour that felt “like hell.”
He fretted that fellow North Korean Embassy officers may discover out he was leaving and chase him. He checked out his wristwatch a few hundred occasions earlier than he and his household lastly boarded the aircraft safely, he mentioned.
If caught, Ri mentioned he and his household would have confronted a future worse than demise in a jail camp the place individuals need to eat bugs to outlive.
Ri just isn’t positive but what he’ll do in South Korea, however is inspired by different North Koreans who’ve efficiently resettled within the South. Tae, the previous North Korean minister, was elected to the South Korean parliament earlier than receiving a vice minister-level job in July. Ri mentioned he is learn Tae’s memoir about 10 occasions.
Some 34,000 North Koreans have resettled in South Korea because the late Nineteen Nineties to flee poverty and political oppression at house — most of them girls from the North’s poorer northern provinces. In 2023, about 10 North Koreans thought-about to be elites arrived in South Korea, the very best such quantity lately, in accordance with South Korea’s authorities.
“I am unable to assure that my departure will result in extra defections by North Korean diplomats,” Ri mentioned. “However I believe my defection will certainly give them some braveness to take action.”
