Seoul claims top NKorean defector has secrets to share

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

A senior North Korean intelligence official is among the latest high-profile defectors to reach South Korea, according to Seoul’s defense ministry Monday.

The colonel from Pyongyang’s Reconnaissance General Bureau is said to have arrived in the South last year.

A ministry spokesperson declined to offer any detailed information about the official, but the revelation came after Seoul took the rare step of announcing the mass defection last week of 13 North Korean restaurant staff working overseas who had been among the thousands of workers sent abroad to raise money for their heavily sanctioned homeland.

These developments are viewed in South Korea as a sign of growing social unrest and pressure on Pyongyang due to United Nations sanctions, which were strengthened in response to the North’s fourth nuclear test in January as well as a satellite launch a month later.

Defections of supposedly loyal North Korean subjects could be seen as an indication that the cult of personality around dictator Kim Jong-un is weakening.

The unnamed intelligence official may have escaped before this year’s nuclear test, but he has reportedly disclosed at least some of Pyongyang’s secrets.

“He is believed to have stated details about the bureau's operations against South Korea to authorities here,” said a source familiar with the situation, as cited by local news agency Yonhap.

Such espionage activities could include cyber hacking, with the South claiming to have suffered several days of GPS jamming by the North in their border area earlier this month.

Observers have spoken of hoarding in North Korea since the new U.N. sanctions were imposed, while the regime itself has warned its people to be prepared for hardship.

Nearly 30,000 escapees from the North have made their way to South Korea since a massive famine struck the reclusive state in the 1990s.

Seoul has a policy of accepting North Korean defectors but they must pass through resettlement centers to be vetted and prepared for life in the South.

Among the most prominent North Korean defectors to date was late politician Hwang Jang-yop, previously a tutor to former leader Kim Jong-il.

Escapees often hide their identities for fear of harm being done to relatives back in the North, or out of concern that they might even be tracked down by Pyongyang agents.