A North Korean diplomat who had been stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea last year, Seoul’s spy agency said Tuesday, joining a small but growing number of defections by the North’s elite in recent years.
Ri Il Kyu, who had served as the counselor of political affairs at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, entered the South in November with his family, said South Korea’s National Intelligence Service without providing further details.
Ri, 52, who joined the North's foreign ministry in 1999, had been serving as the political counselor at the Cuban embassy since April 2019. His role included preventing the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba, according to Ri's interview with the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo.
In February, Seoul and Havana forged formal ties in a move that was widely seen as a setback to Pyongyang, which has long boasted about its brotherly ties with the Caribbean country.
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In 2013, while working at the Cuban embassy, Ri negotiated with Panama to release the North Korean ship Chong Chon Gang, which was detained for carrying surface-to-air missiles and fighter jet parts. For his efforts, he received a commendation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Chosun Ilbo reported.
But Ri told the newspaper that he made the decision to defect out of “frustration and anger” over what he called an “unfair work evaluation” at the North’s foreign ministry and its refusal of his request to receive medical treatment in Mexico.
“Every North Korean thinks at least once about living in South Korea. Disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future led me to consider defection,” the South Korean daily quoted him as saying.
Ri is the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea since Thae Yong-ho, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in the United Kingdom, defected in 2016.
Other notable defections include Jo Song-gil, the acting ambassador to Italy in 2019, and Ryu Hyun-woo, the acting ambassador to Kuwait, who held the ranks of first secretary and counselor, respectively.
Tae, who served as a lawmaker from 2020-2024 in South Korea, welcomed Ri’s arrival by describing Ri as a “Cuba expert” who compiled many documents on Latin American issues reported to the North Korean leader Kim.
“I hope that we, former North Korean diplomats, work together for reunification to make come true North Korean officials’ and residents’ dream for their children to live freely in the Republic of Korea,” said Tae in a statement, calling South Korea by its official name.
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, around 10 North Koreans with “elite background” defected last year, the largest number since 2017, although border controls reduced the total number of North Koreans entering the South last year to about one-sixth of what it was in 2017.
Edited by Mike Firn.