A top North Korean official in a state intelligence agency is reportedly defecting to South Korea, pointing to growing cracks in Kim Jong Un’s regime.
“An unidentified official from the Ministry of State Security defected to the South,” a source knowledgeable in Korean affairs told The Korea Times Wednesday.
The official, a director-general level elite who defected last year, is said to have told South Korean authorities about “growing public discontent with the North Korean leader.”
High-level defectors offer beneficial opportunities for the South to learn valuable information from inside the reclusive black box that is North Korea. The defection of the Ministry of State Security is reported to have caused unease in Pyongyang.
The Ministry of State Security is an important state security and intelligence agency which manages a secret police organization that gathers information and cracks down on domestic dissidents.
Defections from key state agencies like the Ministry of State Security are uncommon. Such defections signal that the allegiance of North Korean elites may be fraying.
International sanctions in response to North Korea’s nuclear activities and missile tests have left the country strapped for cash, causing some to question the nation’s leadership. Kim Jong Un has stepped up his reign of terror to maintain control.
The young dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly executed more than 100 officials to secure his hold on North Korea. He is also dishing out harsh non-lethal punishments, e.g. Vice Foreign Minister Kung Sok-ung being sent to a collective farm for letting defectors escape.
Kim’s oppressive “iron fist” rule has Pyongyang “boiling” with discontent, reports The Korea Herald.
High-level defections are becoming increasingly common. A diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in Russia reportedly defected in July. Minister at the North Korean Embassy in London Thae Yong-ho defected to South Korea in August. Late last month, an official at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing who was supposedly responsible for securing medical supplies for a clinic tasked with caring for the Kim family defected.
In addition to officials, North Korean workers abroad are also fleeing. Thirteen restaurant workers stationed in China sought asylum in South Korea in April. Tenworkers in St. Petersburg, Russia are also looking to defect to South Korea. Workers are unsatisfied with their poor working conditions and pressure to send their wages back to North Korea.
At the end of August, there were 29,688 defectors living in South Korea. North Koreans numbering 894 defected to the South this year.
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye is calling on North Koreans to abandon the North and defect to the “bosom of freedom.” The South is reportedly making preparations to receive tens of thousands of defectors.
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