Thae Yong-ho

It was quickly discovered that the man was Kim Jong-chol, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

While Kim indulged in music that would be cause for deep punishment back in North Korea, the episode also contributed to the disillusionment of the diplomat Tae Yong-ho, tasked with keeping the North Korean VIP safe in London.

Tae later defected to South Korea with his family.

His experience is recounted by Jian Beck in her latest article for Foreign Affairs.

But we have been through this exercise before during COVID.

And some very respectable representatives of the North Korean defector community, both of them members of the The South Korean parliament at the time, Taeyong Ho, former DCM in London, former North Korean DCM in London, and Chi Song Ho, who appeared at the State of the Union address in 2018, both of them bought into this and it did damage their reputation.

So sometimes this type of exercise is meant to damage the reputation of prominent figures within the North Korean government.

escapee movement, the North Korean human rights movement, the North Korean expert community.

A very good day to you as well, John and Gordon.

Eventually, this is going to be true, nobody's eternal, but we have been through this exercise before during COVID, and some very respectable representatives of the North Korean defector community, both of them members of the The South Korean parliament at the time, Tae Yong-ho, former DCM in London, former North Korean DCM in London, and Chi Song-ho, who appeared at the State of the Union address in 2018, both of them bought into this and it did damage their reputation.

So sometimes this type of exercise is meant to damage the reputation of prominent figures within the North Korean government.

escapee movement, the North Korean human rights movement, the North Korean expert community.

Your house, your, your parents would be moved from countryside, a very remote area, to the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang.

But North Korea's former deputy UK ambassador, Thae Yong-ho, says if a soldier is captured alive, like these two carried out of Russia's Kursk region last year, the consequences can be reversed.

There would be a very heavy punishment.

Their social status would be downgraded.

... emboldened, that he feels like his troops are trained in the art of modern warfare.

So I think that, you know, th- that, all of the, the tides were starting to shift, and then COVID was the excuse to really shut down the border, tighten border security, make sure that, you know, even recall people from overseas, bring them back, not let them out, uh, because they don't want any elite or high-level defections like, like Thae Yong-ho, the former London ambassador.

That was a huge embarrassment for, for the North Koreans, and so they're trying to prevent any sort of defections by basically locking everybody inside the country and giving them a reasonable quality of life.

But yes, unfortunately, the side effect of that is a lot of diplomats, NGOs from the West, they've just not been allowed back in.