SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s spy agency says a North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has defected to South Korea.
The National Intelligence Service said Tuesday that media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba are true. But it gave no further details.
South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that the North Korean diplomat, named Ri Il Kyu, fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November last year.
Ri’s defection is the latest in a series of defections by North Korean diplomats in South Korea in recent years.
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid economic hardships and political suppression since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
