The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is looking for a North Korean defector living in South Korea who went missing in June last year after he left for China to bring his wife to South Korea.

The NIS fears he may have been publicly executed in North Korea.

Yoo Tae-joon, who had lived in the southern city of Taegu with his family, has not been heard from since he headed for China, and some rumors have been circulating that he was captured by North Koreans and executed.

An NIS official said that they are looking into Yoo's whereabouts and the speculation that he was executed by North Korea earlier this year.

Yoo, 33, an employee of a coal sales office in North Korea, defected to South Korea with his infant son in November 1998 and settled in Taegu the following month. His mother found her way to South Korea in February last year.