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| Top-Level Defectors from N. Korea Identified by Wikileaks | |
| 2010-12-03 | |
Another is the chief of an overseas mission in Northeast Asia, who defected in the second half of last year. And a former head of a North Korean corporation charged with earning hard currency for the regime has also defected to Seoul. "Sol Jong-sik was one of the most prominent officials in their 30s and 40s who assumed key positions in Pyongyang and provincial regions after Kim Jong-un was designated as the heir apparent to the leadership last year,” a North Korean source said. The Youth League is a key social organization with a nationwide network. Many of the league's senior members move on to key offices in the Workers Party. "Sol is interested in the outside world and likes South Korean TV dramas," the source said. "I understand he fled the North due to a problem caused by these propensities." A directory for North Korea's organizations published by the Unification Ministry in 2009 identifies Sol Jong-sik as the first secretary of the Youth League in Ryanggang Province. But in the 2010 edition the entry is blank. The high-ranking diplomat in Northeast Asia "fled the North late last year and the head of the corporation in charge of earning hard currency traveled overseas to buy electrical materials and defected," another source said. According to a U.S. diplomatic cable disclosed by WikiLeaks, then foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan told U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues Robert King, who was visiting Seoul in January this year, "An unspecified number of high-ranking North Korean officials working overseas had recently defected." The situation in the North was becoming "increasingly chaotic," Yu added. The National Intelligence Service refused to confirm the reports. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #12 Hard labor at Leavenworth - put him in the cell next to Manning. Or else send him to Supermax in Colorado with all those wonderful terrorists he just helped. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-12-03 23:50 |
| #11 (basically flung alive into lava) I could be satisfied if he spent a good number of years in solitary confinement, pondering the results of his actions... including having so much time to think, uninterrupted. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-12-03 17:45 |
| #10 I'm not so sure he looks like Gollum, but I would not disagree with anyone that wants him to meet the same fate (basically flung alive into lava). |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-12-03 15:59 |
| #9 GF: No. You are not the only one. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2010-12-03 14:10 |
| #8 am I the only one who thinks Julian looks just like Gollum? |
| Posted by: Graing Forkbeard6150 2010-12-03 12:37 |
| #7 From the Q & A in the Guardian earlier today JAnthony Julian. I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and the protection of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US. In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish UK telegrams and UN emails. My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function. Julian Assange: If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention. Enough said, I guess. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2010-12-03 11:38 |
| #6 where's Anon1 to defend Assange and glow in his halo light? Real blood on his hands indeed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-12-03 10:41 |
| #5 there are many more 'leaks' on that site than the ones getting all the press. i am sure some of them can be protected somehow. |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2010-12-03 09:35 |
| #4 It's funny how the government has more mechanisms for protecting the rights of Sony and Disney than they do for protecting the lives of people in war zones or trying to escape tyranny. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-12-03 09:29 |
| #3 Actually I asked the copyright question, too, and was told the U.S. officials cannot act on copyright issues because everything the U.S. government writes has no copyright attached to it? Can anyone confirm this? I guess a take down notice claiming the DCMA should have been the easiest way of stopping the publishing on websites? |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2010-12-03 09:13 |
| #2 cant wait to see the true believers spin this one. why cant the feds shut off his server for hosting copyright material they have no rights to? |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2010-12-03 07:05 |
| #1 Well, this is just the sort of thing we need for good goverernance, isn't it? Funny how even the holiest of do-gooders has collateral damage. Good thing Julian doesn't have a conscience. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2010-12-03 06:14 |