It is not unusual for North Koreans to defect to South Korea, with which the Pyongyang regime maintains permanent tensions marked by almost daily provocations. It is less common to see a senior North Korean diplomat defect to its southern neighbor, but that is exactly what happened recently, they said. bbc South Korean secret services.

The diplomat was stationed at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, one of the few countries with which Pyongyang has diplomatic relations, where he worked as an adviser in the embassy’s political affairs department. In November, he defected to South Korea.

The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo identifies the diplomat as Ri Il Kyu, 52, who defected, he told the paper, because of “disappointment [que sentia] with the North Korean regime and a dark future” in the country.

Ri Il Kyu’s role was to prevent the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba. However, the efforts do not seem to have been successful, as in February, Seoul and Havana reestablished bilateral relations.

South Korea holds ceremony for North Koreans who defected

It has been eight years since a senior South Korean official defected to the South. The last known case dates back to 2016, when the former North Korean ambassador to the United Kingdom settled in South Korea.

It is not known whether the two diplomats participated in the first North Korean Defectors’ Day in Seoul on Sunday. At the festive ceremony Several hundred North Koreans, who fled the oppressive regime of Kim Yong-un, played drums, held fashion shows and ate sweets.describes the corresponding cnn in the capital of South Korea Mike Valerio, on the social network.

?????????SEOUL (@CNN) — Truly remarkable… Hundreds of North Korean defectors gather for DRUMS, NK fashion shows, delicacies… North Korea’s first Defectors’ Day.

We spent the afternoon with defectors, in the shadow of what looks like Seoul’s colossal chrome space station,… pic.twitter.com/fTHsPJCNuR

-Mike Valerio (@ValerioCNN) July 16, 2024

Present at the ceremony, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged more financial support for North Korean defectors. and tax incentives for companies that hire citizens of the neighboring country.

South Korean president suggests preemptive strike against North Korea

The head of state, a conservative who has adopted a more aggressive stance towards Pyongyang, also spoke of the need to develop technology to carry out a preemptive strike against North Koreaif the neighboring country prepares to attack Seoul, an idea that Suk Yeol had already suggested in 2022.

North Korea releases another 350 balloons filled with trash over South Korea

These words from the South Korean president come at a time when tensions between the two countries are rising. Kim Jong Un recently formally abandoned the goal of reunification with South Korea and considered South Korea to be the “number one enemy” – a sharp change in the North’s stance, when just six years ago the North Korean president met with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, in Pyongyang.

In recent weeks, North Korea has launched dozens of balloons filled with garbage toward South Korea.