[Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- Thae Yong-ho, an outspoken former North Korean diplomat, has offered to leave a state research institute sponsored by South Korea's spy agency in an apparent bid to help the two Koreas resume stalled inter-Korean talks.
The ex-minister at the North Korean embassy in London has been involved in active public activities to deliver testimony on the North Korean regime since he arrived in Seoul with his family in August 2016. He works at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) run by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
The defector has offered to quit his job as an INSS adverser, saying his action would help the two Koreas promote reconciliation and cooperation, Yonhap News Agency reported, adding the institute would accept his resignation probably on Thursday.
The Koreas were supposed to hold talks on May 16 on how to implement the so-called Panmunjom Declaration signed by their leaders in April. However, Pyongyang suspended the meeting, blasting a joint air exercise by U.S. and South Korean war planes as an intentional provocation that hurt "positive development" on the Korean peninsula.
Ri Son-gwon, a North Korean official handling inter-Korea affairs, condemned Thae as "human scum" and accused South Korea of letting him hurt the North's leadership.
The abrupt suspension of talks came two days after Thae expressed skepticism over complete denuclearization in a country where an "omnipotent" and "godlike" figure controls everything. "The final destination that the North is headed for is not to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program but become a nuclear weapons state covered by the paper called denuclearization."
High-ranking defectors have been under protection by South Korean security authorities to prevent possible attacks by North Korean agents. Pyongyang described Thae as a "special class criminal."
Hwang Jang-yop, a former North Korean ruling party secretary who defected to Seoul in 1997, has been the permanent target of assassination by North Korea until he died of heart failure in 2010. Hwang, known as the main architect of North Korea's governing "Juche (self-reliance)" ideology, was the highest-ranking official from Pyongyang.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
