Spy game: Senior North Korea military officer defects to South

A colonel from North Korea’s military spy agency fled to South Korea last year in a rare senior-level defection, Seoul officials said Monday. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the North Korean colonel specialised in anti-South espionage operations before defecting and had divulged the nature of his work to South Korean authorities while in the North. The announcement came three days after Seoul revealed 13 North Koreans working at the same restaurant in a foreign country had defected to the South. It was the largest group defection since North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.

He is believed to have stated details about the bureau’s operations against South Korea to the authorities here.

An unnamed official talking to Yonhap

The defection of a high-ranking officer in the General Reconnaissance Bureau would be a coup for Seoul. The North set up the bureau in 2009, consolidating several intelligence agencies to streamline operations aimed at the South. Its head, General Kim Yong Chol, is accused by the South of being behind the 2010 torpedo attack against the South that sunk a navy ship and killed 46 sailors. The North denies any responsibility for the sinking. The bureau is also known to operate an elite team of computer specialists working to infiltrate the networks of the South and other countries and to conduct cyber attacks against key institutions.

Korea spy