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Family of N. Korean trade representative in Shanghai defects to South
SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- The wife and children of a North Korean trade representative in Shanghai have recently defected to South Korea and are being questioned by Seoul intelligence officials, a local report said Thursday.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun cited an unidentified official of the ruling Grand National Party who said the wife, identified only by her family name Ri, defected with her son and daughter through a South Korean embassy in Singapore and arrived in Seoul about a month ago.
A spokesman for South Korea's National Intelligence Service did not deny the report but said, "We can't confirm it."
The Seoul-based newspaper said the wife and the two children left Shanghai while her husband, identified only by his family name Sim, traveled to Pyongyang to attend a meeting of North Korean envoys abroad in January. The report said it was not known why Ri chose the South Korean embassy in Singapore or whether she had any connections with the mission.
It noted she decided to defect to South Korea after a troubling incident two years ago in which a junior official accused her husband of being a spy.
"The spy charges were cleared, but she seems to have decided that their future would be uncertain once they had been under investigation," the report quoted the ruling party official as saying.
"She had arguments with her husband about their future, and my understanding is that she chose to leave alone," the official said.
Seoul's spy agency is currently questioning Ri with regard to internal information about North Korea, such as the health condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Pyongyang has said it will launch a communications satellite some time between Saturday and Wednesday next week.
The North Korean trade commission in Shanghai was established following Kim's visit to China in 2001, and its main task is known to be issuing visas for North Korean businessmen operating in the Chinese city.
A slew of North Korean diplomats and senior officials have defected to South Korea since the late 1990s. The highest ranking defector to date is Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the Workers' Party who arrived in the South in 1997.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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