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An AFPTV image of Thae Yong-ho

Thae Yong-ho, a minister-level diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, reached South Korea via Germany with the assistance of British and American intelligence agents, British newspaper the Sunday Express reported on Aug. 21. News of Thae’s defection to South Korea after a 10-year assignment in the UK first broke on Aug. 17.

The Sunday Express offered a detailed account of Thae’s detection, which it said at times “read like a Graham Greene novel.”

Quoting a high-ranking source, the Sunday Express reported that Thae’s decision to defect had been greatly affected by the misgivings of his wife, Oh Sun-hae, about returning to North Korea.

Thae had his first meeting with British intelligence agents at a golf club in Watford about two months before defecting. During this meeting, he reportedly expressed his doubts about returning to Pyongyang.

Thae‘s wife, Oh Sun-hae, had shared Thae’s doubts, which was the biggest factor affecting the defection, the source said.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/702199/North-Korean-diplomat-defected-Thae-Young-Ho-south-london-marks-spencer

About two weeks later, the British Foreign Office informed American intelligence services that Thae was considering defecting, and the US immediately dispatched a few elite agents from a range of organizations to Britain to discuss the defection.

“Though given ‘carte blanche’ to choose where in the world he wanted to base his family, the loyal Korean chose South Korea,” the paper said.

“Despite the tightest security, it took only ten days for rumours of the defection to begin circulating in Seoul, South Korea that a defection was imminent ‘from somewhere in Europe.’”

After Thae made up his mind to defect to South Korea, he and his wife, along with their 19-year-old and 26-year-old sons, boarded a British Aerospace 146 aircraft at the Brize Norton Royal Air Force station in Oxfordshire, England, and headed for Germany.

Thae and his family were joined on the plane (which has a capacity of 30 people) by seven officials from the British Foreign Office and the US State Department. Once the plane took off, it was escorted by two Typhoon fighters.

While the plane was on its way to Germany, Thae signed a letter to UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressing his gratitude and asked that the letter be personally delivered to her.

At the same time, Thae‘s youngest son, Geum-hyeok, was writing a letter to his best friend in Britain to explain his abrupt disappearance. Geum-hyeok had been an excellent student, receiving As at school, and he had been about to enroll in London’s Imperial College.

After two hours, the plane touched down at the US Air Force base at Ramstein, Germany, and Thae and his family transferred to a different aircraft that was bound for Seoul.

“It is clear that Mr. Thae had been entertaining private concerns about his future, which was bound to include a return to Pyongyang,” a senior British source was quoted as saying by the Sunday Express. “Interestingly however, it was only when his wife began to share similar concerns that these thoughts took on a concrete form.”

By Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporter

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