A high-ranking North Korean defector has called for peaceful means to achieve permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.
 
Thae Yong-ho, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to London who defected to South Korea last year, made the call on Tuesday during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
 
Thae said that he supported the Trump administration's policy of exerting "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang, but it should go together with "maximum engagement" of the North Korean leadership and efforts to end the isolation of North Korean residents. 

[Sound bite:Thae Yong-ho - North Korea's former deputy ambassador to London (English)]
"The purpose of my visit and the main focus of my visit in America during my stay is and will be three points. Whenever I meet, wherever I go, I continue to tell American public that North Korea is not the subject for destruction but it should be the subject for change. That is what I want to tell.
Secondly, everyone agrees with permanent peace on Korean Peninsula. So, since our goal is peace then the means to achieve that goal should be peaceful- peacefully. That is the second point which I want to deliver.
And thirdly, I support maximum pressure policy but I strongly believe that maximum pressure should go together with maximum engagement. And maximum engagement I think should include not only the Kim Jong-un leadership but also North Korean population as well. I fully agree with Mr. Carl Gershman's remarks about we should end the isolation of 24 million of North Korean population and how can we end that isolation of North Korean population."
 
He stressed the need to use "soft power" before taking any military action.
 
Thae also said that nothing can stop what he called Kim Jong-un's "reign of terror," but much more can be done to spread information about the outside in the North. 

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