'Kim Jong-un's Finance Officer Son-in-law' Former North Korean Ambassador Defects and Enters South Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] It was reported on the 25th that a former North Korean charg? d'affaires to Kuwait defected and entered South Korea.

According to sources familiar with North Korean intelligence, after the adoption of the UN Security Council's sanctions resolution against North Korea in September 2017, the then North Korean ambassador to Kuwait, Seo Chang-sik, was expelled, and it was revealed that Ryu Hyun-woo, the former charg? d'affaires who had served as ambassador ad interim, defected with his family and entered South Korea.

At that time, former charg? d'affaires Ryu held the rank of counselor, and it appears that he changed his name to his current one during the resident registration process after entering the country.

The entry date is reported to be September 2019. This is almost the same time as Chosung-gil, the former North Korean charg? d'affaires to Italy, who is known to have entered South Korea in July 2019.

Notably, he is known to be the son-in-law of Jeon Il-chun, who served as the head of the Workers' Party Office 39, which manages the ruling funds of Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.

The Workers' Party Office 39, headed by Jeon Il-chun, is responsible for securing the ruling funds of the Workers' Party. It owns major financial institutions such as Koryo Bank and key profitable enterprises, and is also involved in foreign currency earning activities through the production of "supernotes" (counterfeit US $100 bills) and drug trafficking.

An official from the National Intelligence Service stated regarding the report of former charg? d'affaires Ryu's entry into South Korea, "We cannot confirm this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.