High-ranking North Korean diplomat in Cuba defected to South

A high-ranking North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea last November -- just months before Seoul and Havana established diplomatic ties, South Korea's spy agency said Tuesday.

North Korean diplomat Ri Il Kyu had been responsible for political affairs at Pyongyang's embassy in Cuba since 2019, tasked specifically "with obstructing the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba", according to South Korea's Chosun Daily.

Ri defected to South Korea with his wife and children in early November, making him the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat known to have defected since Thae Yong Ho, Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to Britain, in 2016, the report said.

South Korea's spy agency told AFP Tuesday that it was "true" there had been a "defection of the counselor of political affairs from the North Korean embassy in Cuba", without giving further details.

Seoul's unification ministry has previously flagged a rising number of defections by North Korean elites, which they said made up around 10 of the 196 defections in 2023, the highest in years.

Around three months after Ri's reported defection, Seoul and Havana -- which is one of Pyongyang's oldest allies, and a fellow communist state -- announced they were establishing diplomatic ties.

In an exclusive interview with South Korea's Chosun Daily, Ri said he decided to defect after Pyongyang rejected his request to seek medical treatment in Mexico after an injury, even though he could not receive the necessary treatment in Cuba due to a lack of specialist equipment.

He also claimed to have received unfair performance reviews after rejecting a demand from a senior foreign ministry official in the North for bribes when he visited Pyongyang in August 2019 to discuss opening a North Korean restaurant in Cuba.

"Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea," he told the Chosun Daily.

"Disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future led me to consider defection."

Ri also told the newspaper that North Korea's former foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and his family had been sent to a political prisoner camp in December 2019 on "suspicion of corruption", over a bribery case involving the country's embassy in Beijing.

- Diplomatic defections -

In 2019, Jo Song Gil, North Korea's former acting ambassador to Italy, also defected to the South after disappearing from the mission in Rome in 2018.

Ryu Hyun Woo, North Korea's acting ambassador to Kuwait, also defected, and arrived in South Korea in 2019.

Analysts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long been "distrustful" of his foreign ministry, especially diplomats stationed overseas.

"The defection of Thae Yong Ho, Jo Song Gil ... and Ri Il Kyu reflect how Kim perceives his country's diplomats," Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.

Seoul's spy agency said in May that Pyongyang was plotting "terrorist" attacks targeting Seoul's officials and citizens overseas, with the foreign ministry raising the alert level for diplomatic missions in five countries.

The agency said it appeared to be a response by Pyongyang to the wave of defections by elite North Koreans who were trapped overseas during the pandemic and were seeking to avoid returning home after border controls were eased.

North Korean embassy officials may be submitting false reports blaming "external" factors -- such as South Koreans based overseas -- for defections by their colleagues in a bid to evade punishment, Seoul's spy agency said at the time.

Pyongyang treats defections as a serious crime and is believed to hand harsh punishments to transgressors, their families, and even people tangentially linked to the incident.