Ri Il Gyu, North Korea’s former second-highest diplomat in Cuba, has expressed issues about North Korea’s curiosity in a possible re-election of Donald Trump. In a current interview, he described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime alternative” for Pyongyang to barter a deal that would ease financial sanctions. Ri warned that such a deal could be “a ploy, 100 per cent deception,” supposed to strengthen North Korea’s place.
Ri, who served as a political counsellor on the North Korean Embassy in Havana, defected to South Korea final November.The meticulously deliberate escape, thought of one of the high-profile lately, was publicly revealed in July. He carried out the plan alone and knowledgeable his household afterward. “My spouse first advised me to not make such a dreadful joke. So I confirmed her our airplane tickets, and she or he was speechless,” Ri recounted to The Related Press.
The 52-year-old and his household left for Havana’s airport at daybreak, boarding a flight to a 3rd nation earlier than lastly arriving in South Korea. His defection marks the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect since Tae Yongho’s escape in 2016. Ri’s departure, amidst escalating tensions between the Koreas, is prone to unsettle North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, doubtlessly undermining his management over elite diplomats. Ri prompt that his public feedback may provoke anger from the regime: “The Kim Jong Un regime will seemingly be in a really dangerous temper in the event that they see me talking publicly in media interviews like this.”
Ri’s choice to defect was triggered by the North Korean international ministry’s denial of his request to go to Mexico for medical remedy, which he believed was blocked by his superior in Pyongyang resulting from a earlier bribe request. “That made me so mad,” Ri mentioned. “With out that incident, I in all probability would have saved enthusiastic about defecting, however with out ever leaving.”
On the time, Cuba had not established diplomatic relations with South Korea, complicating the method. Ri’s defection, with the assistance of South Korean authorities, stays a carefully guarded secret to keep away from diplomatic issues and to help different potential defectors.
Because the late Nineties, round 34,000 North Koreans have resettled in South Korea, with an growing variety of elite defectors arriving lately.
Ri, who served as a political counsellor on the North Korean Embassy in Havana, defected to South Korea final November.The meticulously deliberate escape, thought of one of the high-profile lately, was publicly revealed in July. He carried out the plan alone and knowledgeable his household afterward. “My spouse first advised me to not make such a dreadful joke. So I confirmed her our airplane tickets, and she or he was speechless,” Ri recounted to The Related Press.
The 52-year-old and his household left for Havana’s airport at daybreak, boarding a flight to a 3rd nation earlier than lastly arriving in South Korea. His defection marks the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect since Tae Yongho’s escape in 2016. Ri’s departure, amidst escalating tensions between the Koreas, is prone to unsettle North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, doubtlessly undermining his management over elite diplomats. Ri prompt that his public feedback may provoke anger from the regime: “The Kim Jong Un regime will seemingly be in a really dangerous temper in the event that they see me talking publicly in media interviews like this.”
Ri’s choice to defect was triggered by the North Korean international ministry’s denial of his request to go to Mexico for medical remedy, which he believed was blocked by his superior in Pyongyang resulting from a earlier bribe request. “That made me so mad,” Ri mentioned. “With out that incident, I in all probability would have saved enthusiastic about defecting, however with out ever leaving.”
On the time, Cuba had not established diplomatic relations with South Korea, complicating the method. Ri’s defection, with the assistance of South Korean authorities, stays a carefully guarded secret to keep away from diplomatic issues and to help different potential defectors.
Because the late Nineties, round 34,000 North Koreans have resettled in South Korea, with an growing variety of elite defectors arriving lately.
