A North Korean diplomat in Europe reportedly defected recently amid expectations of an increase in defections with the regime likely to reopen its borders after closing them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to figures from the South Korean government and the ruling People Power Party(PPP) on Thursday, a North Korean diplomat working in an unspecified country in Europe defected weeks ago.

More defections by North Korean diplomats and workers abroad are expected once the country reopens its borders, with a report coming earlier in the week that the wife and son of an official at the Consulate General of North Korea in the Russian city of Vladivostok went missing.

Radio Free Asia reported on Thursday that the two had escaped the consulate where they had been detained for months.

Meanwhile, PPP Rep. Tae Yong-ho, Pyongyang's former deputy ambassador to Britain, said on Thursday that he met with two North Korean defectors in Seoul this year who he had known in the North.

Tae, who defected in 2016, said that the two North Koreans are estimated to have fled between 2021 and 2022 and settled in South Korea with new names.