The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation recently opened a criminal case over the disappearance of the wife and teenage son of North Korean Consulate General in Vladivostok, Choi Yong Nam.
According to a press release from Russia’s main federal investigative agency, 43-year-old Kim Kum Sun and 15-year-old Pak Kwon Joo were living on the premises of the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok until they disappeared on June 4. The diplomat personally reported his wife and son missing.
The reason for the disappearance as well as the current whereabouts of the missing pair is unknown. Russian Telegram channel Baza cited police reports according to which a North Korean national and her son allegedly left the consulate general by cab, then switched to another car on Russkaya Street and headed toward Khabarovsk, a city located just 30 kilometers from the Russian-Chinese border. This became clear from a statement made by the cab driver as well as from video surveillance footage.
The Russian Telegram channel Amur Mash further reports that the North Korean consul’s wife and son subsequently boarded a plane to Siberia’s second largest city, Krasnoyarsk, using forged South Korean documents. It is thus possible that their disappearance was an attempted defection to China or South Korea.
Local newspapers in and around Vladivostok published personal details such as names and ages, as well as photographs of the missing North Koreans with descriptions of their last clothing. North Korean state media outlets, on the other hand, have not yet commented on the matter or the investigation.
More and more defectors from the North Korean elite
The disappearance of the two North Korean nationals is another blow to the regime after nine North Korean expatriate workers in Russia reportedly fled to South Korea between November and December last year.
Moreover, during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many young North Koreans studying abroad took advantage of border closures imposed by Pyongyang to flee. As a result, North Korea is now seeking to quickly repatriate its international students and has instructed DPRK embassies in Eastern European countries to send them back home.
Data from the South Korean Ministry of Unification suggests the number of defectors who come from the elite of North Korean society, such as diplomats and politicians, is increasing – likely because they have more opportunities to go abroad and do not have to try to cross the North Korean border illegally.
Still, any defector takes a great risk. According to human rights researchers, North Koreans who are caught after attempting to defect face harsh penalties if they are sent back to the DPRK.
North Korean citizens regularly flee the dictatorship for democratic South Korea, where authorities have created a system for their rehabilitation and integration into local society. Often, the escape route leads through Russia or China, as these borders are not as strictly guarded as the inter-Korean border.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
