A North Korean diplomat who served as the country’s acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to South Korea, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by Seoul’s spy agency. Ha Tae-keung, a conservative opposition lawmaker and an executive secretary of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, said Tuesday he was told by officials from the National Intelligence Service that the diplomat arrived in South Korea in September 2019 with his wife and at least one child. That would make him one of the most senior North Koreans to defect in recent years. North Korea, which touts itself as a socialist paradise, is extremely sensitive about defections, especially among its elite, and has sometimes insisted that they are South Korean or American plots to undermine its government. Ha said he was told that the diplomat, who changed his name to Ryu Hyun-woo after arriving in the South, had escaped through a South Korean diplomatic mission but that spy officials didn’t specify where. Ha said spy officials didn’t provide specific details as to why Ryu decided to defect. The office of Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker of the ruling liberal party and the intelligence committee’s other executive secretary, said he was also told that Ryu was now living in South Korea. Kim’s aides didn’t elaborate further. The NIS and South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, didn’t independently confirm Ryu’s defection when reached by The Associated Press. Kuwait’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A cellphone number once associated with the North Korean Embassy there rang unanswered Tuesday. North Korean state media has yet to comment on Ryu’s situation. While North Korea has expressed anger over some high-profile defections in the past, it has also been known to maintain silence when defectors keep a low profile — such as the 2018 defection of its former acting ambassador to Italy — in part to avoid highlighting the vulnerabilities of its government. North Korea has long used its diplomats to develop money-making sources abroad and experts have said it’s possible that diplomats who defected may have struggled to meet financial demands from authorities at home. North Korea’s long-mismanaged economy has been devastated by U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear program, which strengthened significantly in 2016 and 2017 amid a provocative series of nuclear and weapons tests. The defections by senior North Korean diplomats could reflect a growing sense of uncertainty among the country’s elite about the nation’s future under a third-generation dynasty obsessed with nuclear weapons, said Shin Beomchul, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy and a former South Korean diplomat. “The North’s economic situation has worsened significantly from the sanctions of 2016 and 2017, and instead of pursuing reforms and openings to the outside world, the leadership is doubling down on increasing political control,” Shin said. “This inspires questions about the future among the elite, and when they have the chance, they try to escape.” However, Shin said it would be premature to take the defections as a sign that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s grip over his regime is weakening. In recent speeches, Kim has vowed to strengthen his nuclear arsenal and reassert greater state control over the economy and society. Experts say Kim’s comments were aimed in part at pressuring […]

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