Former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho has been appointed as the new leader of South Korea’s presidential advisory council on unification.
This role makes him the highest-ranking defector among the thousands who have resettled in South Korea and the first to achieve a vice-ministerial position.
Tae, 62, was previously Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom before defecting to South Korea in 2016.
North Korea has labeled him “human scum” and accused him of embezzlement and other crimes. Despite these accusations, Tae became the first former North Korean to win a seat in South Korea’s National Assembly in 2020.
Although he failed to secure a second term in the April parliamentary elections, his new role involves advising South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on strategies for peaceful Korean unification.
The presidential office endorsed Tae, stating, “He is the right person to help establish a peaceful unification policy based on liberal democracy and garner support from home and abroad.”
Born in Pyongyang in 1962, Tae spent nearly 30 years in North Korea’s foreign service under three generations of the Kim dynasty.
He cited his desire for a better life for his children and disillusionment with Kim Jong Un’s regime as reasons for his defection.
In his memoir published this year, Tae detailed the excesses of the North Korean elite and the extent of the personality cult surrounding the Kims.
Since his defection, Tae has advocated for using “soft power” to undermine the Kim regime and has called for prisoner swaps between North and South Korea.
Tensions between the two Koreas have escalated recently, with Seoul resuming propaganda broadcasts in response to North Korea floating trash-carrying balloons into the South.
Satellite imagery also suggests that North Korea may be bolstering its military presence and constructing barriers along its border with the South.
As of December last year, approximately 34,000 North Korean defectors have resettled in South Korea, often after passing through China.
These defectors automatically receive South Korean citizenship and resettlement assistance.
Earlier this week, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed another high-profile defection of a former diplomat stationed in Cuba, identified as 52-year-old Ri Il Kyu.
Ri cited “disillusionment with the North Korean regime and a bleak future” as his reasons for fleeing.
On Sunday, South Korea observed its first North Korean Defectors’ Day, during which President Yoon Suk Yeol promised enhanced financial support for defectors and tax incentives for companies that employ them.
Source-BBC
