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N. Korean senior military official defected to S. Korea in 2015

Collected: 2016.04.12

Distributed: 2016.04.14

Source: Go Direct

A high ranking North Korean military intelligence official, responsible of espionage operation against South Korea, defected to Seoul last year, the South Korean government said on Monday, three days after it announced 13 North Koreans working at an overseas North Korean restaurant landed at Seoul, the first time in five years for North Korean to enter South Korea in a group defection since March 2011.

The defected North Korean colonel is said to be in general level as the defector comes from the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the core spying agency within the North Korean military regime. This incident would mark the defection made by “the highest ranking official among military defectors who fled from North Korea in past ten years,” said an unnamed expert on North Korean issues.

The senior military official’s defection to South Korea suggests that North Korea’s high-class military officials are discontent with North Korean leader Kim Jung-un. “The recent military defector who fled North Korea belongs to the class that Kim Jung-un took care of with foreign luxury goods and money,” said an unnamed South Korean government official with knowledge of the matter. The senior military official is thought to have fled from North Korea as Kim had trouble procuring expensive gifts that he lavished the military regime’s key members to retain loyalty. “It is said that many (North Korean) military elites have complaints with Kim Jung-un’s leadership,” said the official.

By Ahn Doo-won

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