South Korea’s spy agency announced on Tuesday that a senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, marking the latest in a series of defections by members of North Korea’s ruling elite in recent years. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed media reports regarding the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba. However, the NIS public affairs office provided no further details in its brief statement.

South Korea’s prominent Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that the diplomat, Ri Il Kyu, fled to South Korea in November with his wife and children. Ri, in an interview with Chosun Ilbo, stated that his decision to defect stemmed from disillusionment with North Korea’s political system, an unfair job evaluation by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, and the ministry’s refusal to allow him to visit Mexico for medical treatment of his neural damage. Ri indicated that hospitals in Cuba lacked the necessary medical equipment to treat his condition due to international sanctions.

Other South Korean media outlets corroborated these reports later on Tuesday. Ri's defection occurred before South Korea and Cuba established diplomatic ties in February, a development that experts suggest likely delivered a political blow to North Korea, which relies heavily on a small number of Cold War-era allies like Cuba for diplomatic support.

The Chosun Ilbo report highlighted that Ri had been actively involved in efforts to prevent Cuba from establishing diplomatic ties with South Korea up until his defection. Ri was commended by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his role in negotiations with Panama that resulted in the release of a ship detained in 2013 for allegedly transporting banned items, such as missiles and fighter jet parts. At the time, Ri held the position of third secretary at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba.

The South Korean government has observed a steady increase in the number of highly educated North Koreans with professional backgrounds defecting to South Korea in recent years. However, it remains uncommon for a member of North Korea’s ruling elite to seek asylum in South Korea.

Approximately 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, primarily to escape economic hardship and political repression. The majority of these defectors are women from the North’s impoverished northern regions who have arrived in South Korea since the mid-1990s, following a devastating famine in North Korea that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

In 2016, Tae Yong-ho, then a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to South Korea. Upon his arrival in Seoul, Tae explained that he chose to defect because he did not want his children to endure "miserable" lives in North Korea and felt "despair" after witnessing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un execute officials and pursue nuclear weapons development. North Korea denounced Tae as "human scum" and accused him of embezzling government funds and other crimes. Tae was later elected to South Korea’s parliament in 2020.

In 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, also defected to South Korea. That same year, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait arrived in South Korea with his family. In 2021, lawmakers cited the NIS as stating that the diplomat had changed his name to Ryu Hyun-woo upon arriving in South Korea.

South Korea’s unification and foreign ministries have declined to confirm reports regarding Ri’s defection.

The highest-ranking North Korean to defect to South Korea is Hwang Jang-yop, a senior official of the ruling Workers’ Party who once tutored Kim Jong Un’s late father, dictator Kim Jong Il. Hwang’s 1997 defection was celebrated by many South Koreans as a significant intelligence victory and an indication of the inferiority of North Korea’s political system compared to South Korea’s. Hwang passed away in 2010.