ⓒ KBS

Former North Korean acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil disappeared in November 2018, and he had been widely reported to be seeking asylum in a third country. But it was confirmed early this month that he defected to South Korea. Jo is the first high-ranking North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea since the defection of North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, Thae Yong-ho, in August 2016. Jo is also the first ambassador-level figure to defect abroad since North Korean leader Kim Jon-un came to power. 

Here is lawyer Oh Hyun-jong to tell us about some North Korean diplomats who have sought asylum while working at overseas missions. 

The first North Korean diplomat who defected abroad is Ko Young-hwan. The former first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Congo defected to South Korea in June 1991. Previously in North Korea, he worked at the Foreign Ministry. After coming to South Korea, he served as the vice director of the Institute for National Security Strategy under the National Intelligence Service. Lately, he has frequently appeared on a TV show on one of general programming cable channels as a panel member specializing in North Korea-related issues. 

Another North Korean diplomat and former third secretary at the North Korean Embassy in Zambia Hyon Song-il also defected to South Korea with his wife in January 1996. In Zambia, Hyon’s wife, Choi Soo-bong, had a humiliating experience of getting slapped by the ambassador and asked for asylum at the South Korean Embassy in the African country. Because of this, Hyon was about to be summoned to North Korea. Feeling a threat to his own safety, he decided to defect to South Korea, following his wife. His defection came as a shock, because his father was a senior party official. 

More recently, in 2016, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain Thae Yong-ho defected to South Korea. In April this year, he became the first-ever North Korean defector to be chosen directly by South Korean voters to win a seat in the National Assembly.

There was a North Korean diplomat who chose a third country, not South Korea. Former North Korean ambassador to Egypt Jang Sung-gil and his family defected to the U.S. in August 1997. The first defection to the western world by a high-ranking North Korean diplomat created a great stir and drew international attention. 

Jang Sung-gil was a competent diplomat who served as the vice department director of the Foreign Ministry in his early 40s. As an expert in Middle East issues, the ambassador was about to return to Pyongyang after spending three years in Cairo. Right before he went missing, his older brother Jang Sung-ho, an official at the North Korean Trade Representative in France, disappeared with his family. 

Three days after the younger Jang disappeared, the U.S. State Department announced that Jang, his brother and their families sought political asylum in the U.S. and that Washington decided to accept the request. It is said that the U.S. helped Jang and his family escape from Egypt by using fake names and travel certificates for U.S. citizens, not even informing the Egyptian government of the plan. Jang has refrained from public activities over the last 20 years. 

North Korean diplomats dispatched overseas belong to the privileged class. Their job is a highly-coveted profession in the strictly-controlled North, as they enjoy the privilege of experiencing the outside world. 

So why do they choose to defect? Thae Yong-ho worked at the North Korean Embassy in Britain for ten years after serving as a diplomat in Denmark and Sweden. When he defected to South Korea, the Ministry of Unification in Seoul said that he made the decision because he felt disillusioned by the Kim Jong-un regime and he had a longing for a liberal democratic system. 

North Korean diplomats residing in other countries naturally learn how democracy or a market economy works, so they see a clear difference between what they experienced in their homeland and what they see in other countries. Thae said that he was easily exposed to South Korean TV programs or movies while he was abroad and they greatly influenced his way of thinking.

Another reason North Korean diplomats decide to defect is the dismal reality of the Kim Jong-un regime, from which many people suffer from or even die from oppression under a reign of terror. In the belief that the reality won’t change easily, diplomats choose to start a second life in other countries. 

Also, they are concerned about their children’s education and future. Their children may have a hard time adjusting to North Korean society again when they return home. Considering the future of their children and the diplomats themselves, they believe it will be better to defect to South Korea or Western countries than to return to Pyongyang. 

Young children of North Korean diplomats usually receive advanced education in open, foreign society. The diplomats hope to continue to educate their children in a better environment, which the youngsters are already used to. They are then at a crossroads of deciding whether to return home or defect. Another reason is that North Korean diplomats, in many cases, work in a very poor environment, even though they belong to the elite class. 

Diplomats, in general, receive necessary subsides from their governments. But North Korean diplomats do not receive any financial support from the central government. That’s why they often have to raise necessary expenses themselves, even through illegal means. Their average monthly salary is around 200 US dollars, which, of course, is not enough for a diplomat to live on in any foreign country. Thae said that his monthly salary in Britain was 650 dollars. As a result, wives of some diplomats work as office assistants or telephone operators to save money. 

In one European country, North Korean diplomats are entitled to free medical care as they are classified as one of low-income groups. In some cases, North Korean diplomats in the Southeast Asian and African regions, who contract endemic diseases like malaria, cannot get proper treatment and return home in poor health. 

North Korean authorities are wary of how local citizens and the international community perceive the continuous defections by diplomats. After Thae Yong-ho’s defection to South Korea in 2016, North Korea reportedly strengthened the monitoring of the Sino-North Korean border areas to prevent North Koreans from escaping. After leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother Kim Jong-nam was assassinated in Malaysia in February 2017, North Korea instructed diplomats and resident employees overseas to monitor each other and inform against anyone showing signs of defecting. 

After the defections of diplomats, North Korea reinforced monitoring of traders and party officials who previously crossed the border easily. When they cross back to the North, they are required to inform the authorities of where they went, and the investigation results are all recorded. Monitoring of their mobile phone records has also been strengthened. After Thae’s defection, security officials in North Korea visited border areas almost every day to provide local residents with some sort of ideology education. If the defection by a high-ranking diplomat is made known to the public, citizens could become agitated. Also, a second or third such defection may follow. Having these concerns in mind, North Korea has heightened its vigilance. 

North Korea has yet to make any official response to former acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil’s entry into South Korea. There are concerns that the senior North Korean diplomat’s defection to the South may affect the already strained inter-Korean relations.

Defections by North Korean diplomats will likely continue, unless there is a fundamental change in the communist regime.