A North Korean Diplomat Managed a Rare Defection: A Flight Out of Cuba

SEOUL—A North Korean diplomat posted in Cuba defected to South Korea with his family late last year, officials said this week, a rare escape from the repressive regime as its leader Kim Jong Un intensifies a crackdown on people fleeing the country. 

Ri Il Kyu, a North Korean counselor of political affairs stationed in Havana, fled to South Korea in November, Seoul’s spy agency confirmed following local reports, the first such defection in five years. While it has become increasingly difficult for ordinary North Koreans to flee the pariah state, the few that have are mainly diplomats and workers stationed abroad who take flight to avoid returning to Pyongyang, where border controls make escape extremely difficult. 

In an interview with South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo, Ri said he had become disillusioned by North Korea’s political system while serving as the third secretary at the embassy. The 52-year-old, who joined the isolated state’s Foreign Ministry in 1999, told Chosun Ilbo that he boarded a plane with his wife and children without telling his family they were heading to South Korea. 

North Korea hasn’t publicly commented on Ri. 

Defections by North Korean elites have been on the rise while ordinary North Koreans find it harder to escape, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification. Some 196 North Koreans fled the country last year, compared with 1,047 in 2019 before the Kim regime closed its borders in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Around 10 of the defectors last year were members of North Korea’s elite, including diplomats and overseas students, the highest number of such defections in years, according to the Ministry of Unification. A ministry official said many defectors didn’t want to return to North Korea after experiencing the free world.  

Before the defection from Cuba, the last known defection of North Korean officials stationed abroad was in 2019. North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy arrived in South Korea in July of that year and his defection became public in 2020. In September 2019, the acting ambassador to Kuwait also arrived in South Korea. 

Ri, who reportedly suffered from neural damage, told Chosun Ilbo that he had requested treatment in Mexico due to the lack of medical equipment in Cuba but North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denied his request.   

North Koreans working abroad, like Ri, have some opportunities to attempt defection, despite the risk of getting caught, which is punishable by imprisonment in re-education camps or even execution. Escape is a much more difficult endeavor for those living inside North Korea, who are routinely subject to forced labor and tight surveillance, according to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office. 

Since the pandemic, the North Korean government has largely sealed its border with China by constructing fences and guard posts to prevent defections. Guards have been ordered to shoot any person approaching the frontier without permission, according to human rights groups. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has essentially made the country a “giant prison,” according to Lina Yoon, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

Ri told the Korean newspaper that the deaths of his parents and in-laws in Pyongyang contributed to the decision to flee. When North Koreans defect, the regime often punishes family members, by holding them hostage or sending them to prison camps. 

Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who fled to South Korea in 2016, welcomed Ri in a Facebook post, calling him a “Cuba expert” who was trusted by Kim. “North Korean diplomats will continue to defect,” he wrote in the post.

Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com