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| North Korea’s No. 2 Diplomat in London Defects to the South | North Korea’s No. 2 Diplomat in London Defects to the South |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| SEOUL, South Korea — A high-ranking North Korean diplomat who was based in Britain has defected to South Korea, one of the most prominent officials to do so in recent years, the government in Seoul said on Wednesday. | SEOUL, South Korea — A high-ranking North Korean diplomat who was based in Britain has defected to South Korea, one of the most prominent officials to do so in recent years, the government in Seoul said on Wednesday. |
| The arrival of the diplomat, Thae Yong-ho, the No. 2 official in the North Korean Embassy in London, was announced by Jeong Joon-hee, a South Korean government spokesman, at a news conference in Seoul. | |
| Mr. Thae’s defection was hailed as a major victory for South Korea, whose relations with the North have soured in recent years over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and missile tests. Mr. Thae is the most senior North Korean diplomat to flee the secretive nation since Jang Seung-gil, the ambassador to Egypt, defected to the United States in 1997. | |
| “He is one of the most senior North Korean diplomats” to have defected, Mr. Jeong said, adding that Mr. Thae’s family had come to South Korea with him. | “He is one of the most senior North Korean diplomats” to have defected, Mr. Jeong said, adding that Mr. Thae’s family had come to South Korea with him. |
| Mr. Thae was second only to Ambassador Hyon Hak-bong at the embassy in London. | |
| Mr. Jeong said that Mr. Thae and his family had arrived in South Korea “recently.” The spokesman would not say whether the diplomat, who was being debriefed by South Korean officials, had family members left in the North or what countries, if any, he had traveled through. | |
| The mass-circulation South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo reported on Monday that a North Korean diplomat in London had defected, citing an anonymous source, but it did not identify the official. | |
| There was no immediate reaction from North Korea to news of Mr. Thae’s defection. The North has typically called defectors “traitors” or has accused South Korea’s intelligence agency of kidnapping them. | |
| According to Mr. Jeong, Mr. Thae told South Korean officials that he had defected because he was disillusioned with the government of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. The diplomat also said that he yearned for the South’s freedom and democracy, and that he wanted to give his children a better future, Mr. Jeong told reporters. | |
| “We see his defection as a sign that some of the core elite in the North are losing hope in the Kim Jong-un regime,” Mr. Jeong said, “and that the internal unity of the ruling class in the North is weakening.” | |
| South Korean officials expressed similar views in April when 13 people working at a North Korean government run restaurant in China fled to the South. Officials said that unusual group defection reflected growing dissatisfaction in the North with Mr. Kim’s government. | |
| But analysts here have cautioned against drawing such conclusions. Cheong Seong-chang, a senior North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said that isolated defections like Mr. Thae’s should not be taken as an indication of instability in the North, and that there was no sign of an organized challenge to Mr. Kim’s rule. |