North Koreans staying abroad are increasingly swayed by leader Kim Jong-un’s reign of terror in their homeland and some of them actually seek asylum, South Korea’s top diplomat said Thursday.
Three and a half years into power, the young North Korean leader has purged and executed more than 70 officials, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se noted.
“It is a sevenfold increase, compared with the first three years of Chairman Kim Jong-il’s leadership. It’s extremely unusual,” he said at a forum hosted by a group of senior South Korean journalists, called the Kwanhun Club.
South Korea’s spy agency has said North Korea has executed some 90 officials since Kim took power. It was not immediately known why there is a discrepancy in the number of those executed in the North.
 |
| Kim Jong-un (Yonhap) |
Yun also said South Korea has detected signs “in various forms” that the North’s “workers” abroad are especially disturbed by Kim’s leadership style.
“In quite a few cases, some of them come to South Korea,” he said.
He did not clarify whether he was referring to government or communist party officials or ordinary North Koreans working overseas to earn foreign currency.
Yun’s remarks came amid multiple media reports that some middle- and high-ranking North Korean officials, including military officers, have recently defected to the South.
But he said many related news reports involving specific figures are incorrect.
The minister, meanwhile, said President Park Geun-hye and her U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, are expected to reach an important deal on ways to deal with North Korea when they meet in Washington later this year.
Park initially planned to visit the U.S. capital in June for a meeting with Obama, but she postponed it due to the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus in South Korea.
Yun said the allies will soon fix a new schedule for the president’s trip, reportedly slated for autumn.
“During the president’s trip to the U.S., I think there will be an important agreement on the North Korea issue,” he said.
Park and Obama plan to share “more advanced and updated common perceptions supported by China, Japan and Russia as well.” (Yonhap)
