Korean diplomats defected to South Korea

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A senior North Korean diplomat, once serving as an ambassador to Kuwait, defected to South Korea with his family in 2019, but was recently announced.

Ryu Hyun-woo came to Korea in September 2019 and applied for asylum, but Ryu's appearance has been kept secret so far, Maeil Business daily reported on January 24.

Ryu said, I decided to defect because I wanted to give my child a better future.

Ryu Hyun-woo became acting North Korean ambassador to Kuwait in September 2017 after the Gulf state expelled special envoy So Chang-sik. The deportation decision was made when Kuwait passed a UN resolution on Pyongyang's weapons program.

According to Maeil Business, Ryu is the son-in-law of Jon Il-chun, the former head of Office 39, the North Korean leader's secret funds manager.

Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to the UK who defected to South Korea in 2016 and was elected as the opposition congressman last year, describes Ryu as part of Pyongyang's core essence.

Thae said, no matter how privileged your life is in North Korea, your mindset will change when you go abroad and start making comparisons.

About 30,000 Koreans are believed to have fled to South Korea. The defection of senior officials is rare, although Ryu arrives only two months after former North Korean ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil applied for asylum in Seoul.

North Korea has tightened border security to prevent Covid-19, causing the number of people fleeing to South Korea plummeted last year. Inter-Korean relations have been frozen after efforts to negotiate have yielded little results in the past few years.