Kim Jong Un can not denuclearize, says the former North Korean diplomat

The former diplomat, who adopted the name Ryu when he moved to the South, is one of several high-profile North Korean officials who defected in recent years. The country’s top diplomat in Italy fled to South Korea in 2019 and Thae Yong-ho, the former deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, left in 2016. Thae has since been elected to the South Korean National Assembly.

Ryu and his family left in South Korea in September 2019, but their actions were made public only last week. Determined to give their teenage daughter a better life, Ryu said he and his wife planned their escape for about a month while living in Kuwait.

Ryu said that if they had been caught, North Korean agents would have quickly taken them all back to Pyongyang for certain punishment, as the departure is considered a major embarrassment for the Kim regime and is not taken lightly.

They finally told their daughter about the plan as they claimed to take her to school.

“Come with mom and dad to find freedom,” Ryu recalls telling his daughter. “She was shocked, then said, ‘Okay.’ That’s all she said. “

Ryu took his family to the South Korean embassy in Kuwait to seek asylum. They traveled to South Korea a few days later.

The defect from North Korea comes at a monumental cost, with the defectors having to immediately sever ties from the entire family remaining in their country of birth.

The regime often punishes nuclear and extended families of deserters to prevent people from leaving, Ryu said – especially diplomats. Those posted abroad are often forced to leave a child at home as a hostage, ensuring that their parents are not defective.

“I think North Korea having such a collective feudal family punishment in the 21st century is horrible,” Ryu said.

He is now worried about his three siblings and his 83-year-old mother still in North Korea. “I just want to see them live long,” Ryu said. “Any thought of them being punished for what I did just hurts my heart.”

He also worries about his wife’s elderly parents living in Pyongyang.

North Korea has long been accused of using its embassies as money cows for the ruling Kim family. Ryu said that while he was a trained diplomat dealing with politics, there were also “economic trade workers” assigned to diplomatic posts. They were given a quota for the amount of money they have to make for the state, Ryu added.

Ryu said only China and Russia were the biggest money winners for the regime by North Korean workers than the Gulf nations of Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE – at least until 2017, when the United Nations condemned Pyongyang for its missiles. repeated and nuclear tests preventing nations from hiring its workers.

“Because of the UN resolution, most of the workers in the Gulf region left,” he said.

Ryu was also posted to Syria, a close ally of North Korea, from 2010 to 2013. While Ryu was accused of overseeing relations with Syrian politicians, his compatriots were selling conventional weapons to the Bashar al-Assad regime, including the ouster multiple long-range artillery and anti-aircraft weapons systems. However, Ryu said the country’s bloody civil war forced Pyongyang to withdraw its personnel from the country. He said he had not heard of any new arms deals with Syrians since leaving the country.

Ryu’s experience in the Middle East gave him a closer look at how the United States dealt with Iran’s nuclear program during the administration of former President Barack Obama. He believes the experience will be useful for US President Joe Biden.

“Based on his experience in resolving the Iranian nuclear issue, I have no doubt that he will be able to handle the North Korean nuclear issue wisely,” Ryu said.

Ryu said he believed North Korea might be willing to negotiate a reduction in its nuclear weapons, but is unlikely to ever give up on them. However, he said sanctions may have played a factor in pushing North Korea to the negotiating table in 2018, when Kim and former US President Donald Trump met for their historic summit in Singapore.

Many analysts believe that Kim came to the negotiating table because he had already developed nuclear weapons and had successfully tested a long-range missile that could reach the territory of the United States.

“The current sanctions on North Korea are unprecedented and strong,” Ryu said. “I think sanctions against North Korea should continue.”

Ryu also said it is important not to abandon the issue of human rights, which was largely involved in the carpet during nuclear talks with the Trump administration.

Pyongyang claims to be a socialist paradise and denies allegations of serious human rights violations. North Korea, however, does not allow freedom of speech or assembly, and citizens cannot leave. The Kim regime is accused of running a system of gulags and political prison camps housing more than 120,000 men, women and children.

“Human rights are a matter of morality and in the North Korean regime, the issue of human rights is a sensitive and serious issue,” Ryu said.

Looking back over the past 16 months, Ryu says his only regret is what could happen to his family members left back in Pyongyang. He and his wife believe they did the right thing for their daughter, driving her away from her hometown.

Ryu told CNN that he asked his daughter what she likes most about her new home. “I like the fact that I can use the internet as much as I want,” she replied.