South Korea and North Korea flags.
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Seoul: A senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba defected with his wife and child to South Korea in November, South Korean media reports said on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to escape to the South since 2016.
Before fleeing to the South, Ri Il Kyu, 52, was a counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, major South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said, citing an interview with Ri. Yonhap News Agency also reported Ri had defected to the South, citing an anonymous government source.
The South's unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, declined to comment on the reports, citing privacy issues.
Among Ri's jobs at the embassy was to block North Korea's rival South Korea and old ally Cuba from forging diplomatic ties, Chosun Ilbo reported. In February, the two countries established diplomatic relations.
Ri said he flew out of Cuba with his family but he did not elaborate further on how he pulled off the high-risk escape.
"I bought flight tickets and called my wife and kid to tell them about my decision, six hours before the defection. I didn't say South Korea, but said, let's live abroad," he said.
North Koreans caught attempting to defect face severe punishment, including death, according to human rights groups and defectors who have been successful.
Fewer North Korean defectors have been arriving in South Korea in recent years due to strict limits on border crossings into China and hefty broker fees, human rights groups and experts say.
Last year, 196 North Korean defectors came to Seoul, down from as many as 2,700 a decade ago, South Korean government data showed. Most of those North Korean defectors who recently defected to the South are the ones who had long lived overseas, like the diplomat Ri, human rights activists say.
Details on North Koreans defections often take months to come to light, with defectors needing to be cleared by authorities and going through a course of education about South Korean society and systems.
Disillusionment
Ri entered North Korea's foreign ministry in 1999 and received a commendation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for successfully negotiating with Panama to lift the detention of a North Korean ship caught carrying arms from Cuba in 2013, Chosun said.
He told the newspaper he had decided to defect over disillusionment with the regime and unfair evaluation of his work.
Ri said he made a final decision to run when his request to travel to Mexico for a medical treatment was denied last year, adding that his parents and parents-in-law who might face reprisals for his defection had passed away.
The last such known high-profile defection to the South was that of Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, in 2016.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday promised better financial support for North Korean defectors and tax incentives for companies hiring those defectors, as he attended the ceremony for the inaugural North Korean Defectors' Day.
North Korea last year shut some embassies in an effort to "rearrange its diplomatic capacity efficiently", closures that South Korea says indicates the North is struggling under the burden of sanctions.
North Korea maintains an embassy in Cuba, though its ambassador returned home in March, according to media reports.
Ri said many North Koreans had dreamed of living in the South, as they wanted to provide a better future for their children in the impoverished country.