MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2021) A North Korean diplomat has defected to South Korea with his family while serving as the charge d'affaires of his country's embassy in Kuwait, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Monday, citing sources.
The news agency did not specify when exactly Ryu Hyun-woo and his family had entered South Korea, saying that the National Intelligence Agency declined to comment on the matter.
According to South Korean media reports, the defection could have taken place back in September 2019 but was kept secret until now.
Ryu's father-in-law is reportedly a former head of the so-called Office 39, an entity of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party that manages secret funds of high-ranking officials, which they use to buy foreign Currency and luxury items.
This is not the first time a North Korean diplomat has defected to the South. In 2019, ex-acting ambassador in Italy Jo Song Gil crossed into South Korea with his family shortly after learning that Pyongyang had plans to replace him at his post. Another senior ex-North Korean diplomat, ex-deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom Thae Yong Ho, who defected with his family in 2016, is now a lawmaker at the South Korean parliament, in charge of the intelligence committee.
