- Title: North Korean elite turning against leader Kim, Pyongyang's former diplomat says.
- Date: 25th January 2017
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JANUARY 25, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NORTH KOREA'S FORMER DEPUTY AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, THAE YONG HO (CENTRE), TAKING SEAT NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS JOURNALISTS SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTH KOREA'S FORMER DEPUTY AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, THAE YONG HO, SAYING: "When Kim Jong Un first came to power, I was hopeful that he would make reasonable and rational decisions to save North Korea from poverty, but I soon fell into despair watching him purging officials for no proper reasons." JOURNALISTS TYPING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTH KOREA'S FORMER DEPUTY AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, THAE YONG HO, SAYING: "Low-level dissent or criticism of the regime, until recently unthinkable, are becoming more frequent." THAE, INTERPRETER (LEFT), AND JOURNALIST (RIGHT) SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTH KOREA'S FORMER DEPUTY AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, THAE YONG HO, SAYING: "The important thing to do for next step of information dissemination is to make the right contents for North Korean people to educate, to make them put questions to their lives, and to their destiny. We have to spray gasoline on North Korea and let North Korean people put fire on it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTH KOREA'S FORMER DEPUTY AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, THAE YONG HO, SAYING: "And as long as Kim Jong Chol's case is concerned, he is not interested in politics at all. He has no position or role in the North Korean system. The only thing he is interested is in his music. He's only interested in Eric Clapton. If he is a normal man, I'm sure that he will be a very good professional guitarist." THAE, INTERPRETER, AND JOURNALIST SITTING JOURNALISTS TYPING THAE LEAVING
- Embargoed: 8th February 2017 10:35
- Keywords: north korea defector diplomat thae yong ho kim jong un
- Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- City: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00160KVSXX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The North Korean elite are outwardly expressing their discontent towards young leader Kim Jong Un and his government, as more outside information trickles into the isolated country, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to London said on Wednesday (January 25).
Thae Yong Ho defected to South Korea in August last year and since December 2016 has been speaking to media and appearing on variety television shows to discuss his defection to Seoul and his life as a North Korean envoy.
"When Kim Jong Un first came to power, I was hopeful that he would make reasonable and rational decisions to save North Korea from poverty, but I soon fell into despair watching him purging officials for no proper reasons," Thae said during his first news conference with foreign media on Wednesday.
"Low-level dissent or criticism of the regime, until recently unthinkable, is becoming more frequent," said Thae, who spoke in fluent, British-accented English.
"The important thing to do for next step of information dissemination is to make the right contents for North Korean people to educate, to make them put questions to their lives, and to their destiny. We have to spray gasoline on North Korea and let North Korean people put fire on it," Thae added.
Thae, 54, has said publicly that dissatisfaction with Kim Jong Un prompted him to flee his post. Two university-age sons living with him and his wife in London also defected with him.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North, which is subject to U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes, regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.
Thae has said that more North Korean diplomats are waiting in Europe to defect to South Korea.
North Korea still outwardly professes to maintain a Soviet-style command economy, but for years a thriving network of informal markets and person-to-person trading has become the main source of food and money for ordinary people.
Fully embracing these reforms would end Kim Jong Un's rule, Thae said. Asked if Kim Jong Un's brother, Kim Jong Chol, could run the country instead, Thae was skeptical.
"And as long as Kim Jong Chol's case is concerned, he is not interested in politics at all. He has no any position of role in North Korean system. The only thing he is interested is in his music. He's only interested in Eric Clapton. If he is a normal man, I'm sure that he will be a very good professional guitarist," Thae said.
Thae is the most senior official to have fled North Korea and entered public life in the South since the 1997 defection of Hwang Jang Yop, the brains behind the North's governing ideology, "Juche", which combines Marxism and extreme nationalism.
Thae said today's North Korean system had "nothing to do with true communism", adding that the elite, like himself, had watched with unease as countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union embraced economic and social reforms. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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