North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has issued an order calling for the forceful repatriation of an “Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau” officer who has been detained at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok after he was caught trying to defect.
According to a Daily NK source on Thursday, Kim issued the “No. 1” order demanding the repatriation of the officer — identified as Major Choe Kum Chol — in mid-January.
According to the source, the order said Choe must be repatriated to the North regardless of his mental state and even if he is dead, and demanded tight security to avoid leaking his whereabouts.
While North Korea has been unable to repatriate other would-be defectors since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, confining them overseas, the order for Choe demands his repatriation as soon as possible.
According to Voice of America, Choe — an IT cryptology specialist with Unit 563 of the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau — was preparing an asylum application to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Moscow after attempting to defect in July. However, he disappeared after he was arrested by five Russian police officers in Razdol’noe, a town near Vladivostok, on Sept. 20.
According to Daily NK’s source, although Choe has been in confinement at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok since September, only in December did Kim Jong Un learn of the matter.
Agents of the Ministry of State Security and Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau deployed to Russia apparently tried to deal with the matter quietly, believing it nothing more than a simple defection attempt by a low-level officer.
Choe is reportedly an encryption specialist with a PhD from Kim Chaek University of Technology. Daily NK understands, however, that he was in Russia to manage the expired visas and passports of North Korean workers and residents dispatched to Russia, falsifying documents to extend their stays.
Choe was, in fact, an IT specialist who digitalized secret information during his military service, and he reportedly siphoned off some of this information through a collaborator prior to his defection.
Accordingly, North Korean authorities came to view his defection attempt as a major problem.
The source said Choe has no chance of being released given the North Korean leader’s order for his repatriation. He noted further that the officer is likely in poor physical or mental shape.
There are also rumors that the authorities have already launched measures to deal with Choe after his repatriation, suggesting that Choe’s repatriation is imminent.
According to another high-ranking source in North Korea, the authorities have begun preparations to take possession of Choe, rushing a team from the Ministry of State Security to the vicinity of Tumangang Station.
The source said Choe could face immediate execution given Kim Jong Un’s interest in his case; the schedule for his execution, however, would likely depend on what happened with the information Choe leaked.
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