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Grim Picture of North Korea Is Being Sketched by Latest Diplomat To Defect

Kim Jong-un’s subjects ‘live in poverty’ and see ‘reunification with the South as the only way to secure a better future.’

Vietnam News Agency/Getty Images
Defector Ri Il-gyu recalled the execution of a top foreign ministry official “on charges of being a U.S. spy” two weeks before the failed summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un (pictured here) at Hanoi in February 2019. Vietnam News Agency/Getty Images
DONALD KIRK
DONALD KIRK

The latest North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea paints a grim picture of hopelessness among North Koreans fed up with the country’s dictatorial Kim dynasty rule as perpetuated by third-generation leader, Kim Jong-un. 

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DONALD KIRK
DONALD KIRK

Mr. Kirk, based in Seoul and Washington, has been covering Asia for decades for newspapers and magazines and is the author of books on Korea, the Vietnam War and the Philippines.

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