A Korean language newspaper in the United States says a former North Korean missile technocrat and his wife have recently requested asylum to the United States.
The U.S. Edition of the Hankook Ilbo said Sunday that the man, identified only by his surname, Lee, had applied for his and his wife's asylum to the U.S. Immigration and Neutralization Service in late June. The report said Lee is the North Korean escapee who had testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on the North's missile development program in May last year.
The North Korean couple allegedly escaped North Korea to China in 1997 and settled in South Korea before they smuggled into the U.S. via Canada last month.