Mick Hartley

Thae Yong Ho, the North Korean deputy ambassador to the UK who defected in 2016, has decided to run for office in forthcoming elections in South Korea. He's not happy with President Moon's policy of appeasement-at-all-costs towards the North:

Thae told reporters Tuesday he decided to run in the April 15 elections on the ticket of the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party after agonizing over how to contribute to his new home with his knowledge of the North.

Thae said he’s spoken in conferences and written many articles to let the South Korean people know about North Korean strategies. But Thae said he’s found that an acute divide in how Koreans in the South view the North is a major obstacle toward unification and that he is deeply frustrated with what he called a “wrong direction” that South Korea’s liberal government has taken with its policy toward Pyongyang.

His decision has, according to the Daily NK, become "the talk of the town among Pyongyang’s elite":

News of Thae’s decision to run for office spread quickly through elite circles in Pyongyang, largely because he is considered the most prominent defector in South Korea right now, according to a North Korean source on Feb. 24.

The source predicted that news of Thae’s run for office would spread to ordinary North Koreans by next week.

Supporters say that “South Korea is a great country” for allowing a North Korea to run for office.

Supporters have also expressed interest in how Thae’s election to the National Assembly will play out while praising South Korea as a country where anyone “regardless of songbun, family background and class” can develop and express themselves.

It's ironic that the supposedly socialist country is the one where songbun, family background and class actually matter (songbun is the system of ascribed status, based on the political, social, and economic background of one's ancestors and family), but I guess we're past the surprise now with North Korea.

Some of North Korea’s elite in Pyongyang, however, have expressed differing views on Thae’s run for office.

They have reportedly argued that Thae’s run for office is a “strategy” to woo North Koreans into believing “fantasies about capitalism” and that Thae is simply a puppet.

Some of Pyongyang’s elite reportedly believe that Thae has already been elected to office, largely due to their misunderstanding about how elections in South Korea work.

North Korea’s election-related laws state that anyone can run for office, but the reality is that only candidates selected by North Korea’s Central Committee are allowed to run.

“Some people here still believe that people running for office are essentially shoo-ins for that position,” the source said.