North Korea defector says ‘Kim Jong-un’s days are numbered’

A DEFECTOR says the North Korean people will rise up against Kim Jong-un, as he embraces the Trump presidency.

THE highest-level North Korean diplomat to defect from the secretive state has predicted that the country’s people will rise up against its Kim Jong-un, as the leader embraces the Trump presidency.

Thae Yong Ho, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, said Mr Kim would see the election of Donald Trump as “a good opportunity for him to open a kind of compromise with the new American administration”.

But Mr Thae, who left London in August, told CNN a new deal with the US would be on his own terms and would come at a price.

“It would be a good opportunity for him to open a kind of compromise with the new American administration,” Mr Thae said.

Mr Thae also said he believed the North Korean regime was on an inexorable decline towards collapse, with its people increasingly disillusioned.

“I’m sure and I can say that Kim Jong-un’s days are numbered,” he said.

Mr Thae said he was sure that more of his fellow countrymen would follow suit because North Korea was “on a downward path”.

The elite were “turning their backs” on leader Kim Jong-un.

“The traditional structures of North Korean systems are crumbling,” he said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has been ruled by the Kim dynasty since its foundation in 1948. It is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs and is accused by the West of widespread human rights abuses.

Pyongyang carried out two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in 2016 and Mr Thae said Mr Kim was planning to “complete” its atomic development by the end of this year to take advantage of leadership transitions in South Korea and the United States.

“The only way to resolve the issue of North’s nuclear threats is the elimination of Kim Jong-un’s regime,” he said.

He called for continued international sanctions on Pyongyang and publicity campaigns to spread external information in the North and encourage its citizens into “popular uprisings”.

KIM’S ‘BLUNT BLACKMAIL’ TO US

Mr Thae said Mr Kim’s new year’s address almost amounted to “blunt blackmail”.

In the speech, Kim vowed to continue to add to the country’s nuclear capabilities as long as the US continued with its policy against North Korea.

“He called it pre-emptive strike capability,” he said. “That is ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missiles].”

During the election campaign, Mr Trump said he would be open to meeting Mr Kim, a move Mr Thae said would spell bad news for the world as it would give the North Korean leader legitimacy.

Thae Yong Ho said if Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un, it would give him legitimacy. Picture: CNN

“Even Chinese President Xi Jinping and even Russian President Putin — they haven’t even met Kim Jong-un,” he told CNN.

Mr Thae, who defected to South Korea via London, also revealed the one thing Mr Kim would never give up — his nuclear weapons.

“As long as Kim Jong-un is in power, there’ll be no chance for the world to improve the human rights issue or cancel the nuclear program,” he said.

‘MISERABLE LIVES’

Mr Thae, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, told reporters that he made the decision to flee last year because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives in the North.

In his first press conference for foreign correspondents, held under tight security, Mr Thae said he was lucky to have been able to bring both of his sons to London, unlike other North Korean diplomats who were forced to leave some of their children at home as “hostages”. After his sons, now 20 and 27, learned about life in Britain, they began asking him questions including why North Korea barred use of the internet and executed people without proper legal procedures.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un won’t give up his nuclear program, a defector has warned. Picture: Wong Maye/AP

Their British friends at school made fun of them over the nature of their homeland, he said, and asked whether they could be arrested for growing their hair long.

“These kinds of questions bombarded my sons,” Mr Thae said.

Mr Thae said he decided to talk frankly with his boys about North Korea because he had the privilege of access to outside information as a diplomat abroad.

He concluded that his sons would have “miserable” lives if they returned home because they had come to know the truth about the country.

Ahead of their defection to South Korea, Mr Thae told his sons that he was going to “cut the chains of slavery and you are free men”. He said his sons were happy and were “now feeling a true sense of freedom” in South Korea.

DISILLUSION WITH KIM

Mr Thae said his disappointment with Mr Kim was another reason he defected.

He said he initially had some hopes for Mr Kim but eventually fell into “despair” after watching him pursue the development of nuclear weapons and execute officials without proper reasons.

Thae Yong-ho at an exhibition of North Korean art at the country’s embassy in west London last year. picture: Katie Schubaubr/AFP

Mr Kim, believed to be in his early 30s, took office in late 2011 after his dictator father’s death. He has since orchestrated a series of high-profile executions, purges and dismissals in what outside analysts say is an attempt to bolster his grip on power.

Mr Kim’s pursuit of nuclear weapons has drawn tough international sanctions.

When Mr Thae defected to South Korea, he was held for months by the country’s intelligence agency, which aims to weed out spies.

After his release last month, he has conducted a series of media interviews and appeared on various TV programs in what he says is an attempt to reveal the truth about North Korea.

He described himself as a big fan of South Korean dramas and other TV programs while serving in London, and said ordinary citizens in North Korea also enjoyed watching them secretly at home.

He said if North Korea was able to obtain more information about their country’s situation, it could trigger a public uprising against Mr Kim’s government.

Mr Thae, reportedly under a police protection program, said he didn’t worry about any possible attempts by North Korean agents to kill him.

Kim Jong-un has ruled his country with an iron fist since taking over power in 2011. Picture: AFP

“I am quite confident that without sacrifice by any individual or any group … reunification or the elimination of the Kim Jong-un regime cannot be achieved,” he said.

Mr Thae is the most senior North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea.

In 1997, the North Korean ambassador to Egypt fled but resettled in the United States. North Korea has called Mr Thae “human scum” and accused him of embezzling government money and committing other crimes.

— with staff writers