Mick Hartley

Another high-level North Korean defector – from Richard Lloyd Parry in the Times:

A senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba has defected to South Korea because he could not bear the idea of his children “bowing” before Kim Jong-un’s young daughter.

Ri Il-gyu, 52, formerly a counsellor at the embassy in Havana, said that all North Koreans contemplated fleeing the country because Kim had “extinguished hope” among his people. He added that in person Kim looked unhealthily red, as if permanently flushed by alcohol.

Ri fled with his wife and children in November, but the news was confirmed by the South Koreans only on Tuesday after he gave an interview to a Seoul newspaper.

“Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea,” he told the conservative Chosun Ilbo. “Disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future led me to consider defection.”

He is the most senior figure known to have abandoned the regime since Thae Yong-ho, the deputy ambassador at North Korea’s embassy in London, defected in 2016.

From the Chosun Ilbo interview:

Ri Il-gyu, 52, a former elite counselor who worked at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, said in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo on July 14, “Once the article is published, the North Korean authorities will attack me as human trash, just as they always do with defectors.” Despite this, he agreed to the interview because he felt that “exposing the horrific human rights abuses and reality in North Korea is the way to help the North Korean people.”…

How did you feel about the nuclear and missile tests?

“Initially, the announcement of successful nuclear and missile tests was met with a sense of pride. However, as people realized the immense financial resources being diverted to these programs, their support waned. Under the false pretense of preparing for a U.S. invasion, Kim Jong-un’s regime has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to nuclear and missile development. This expenditure has crippled the country’s economy and reduced 25 million people to modern-day slavery. Older citizens have remarked that ‘it wasn’t this hard during the Japanese occupation.’ They question the rationale behind defending such a harsh and impoverished system. In response to losing popular support, the regime is escalating its politics of fear.”…

What are your plans for the future?

“For people like us, it’s hard to live without believing in the possibility of reunification. We hope to return to our hometowns someday and seek forgiveness from our families. If reunification happens, I want to introduce advanced culture, science, and technology to North Korean society. When I was in North Korea, I thought I was worldly because I had traveled a lot, but after coming to South Korea, I realized how naive I was. I didn’t know anything about banking, finance, traffic regulations, or automated systems. President Yoon Suk-yeol said in his Memorial Day speech this year, ‘South Korea is now one of the brightest countries in the world, but North Korea behind the armistice line is the darkest land.’ He was absolutely right. I want to think about how we can bring light to that dark land.”

Well, good luck with that.