Elite defector tells BBC that Kim Jong Un wants Trump back

A person familiar with the situation said Donald Trump’s return to the White House would be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for North Korea.

Ri Il-gyu is the most high-profile defector to flee North Korea since 2016 and has faced Kim Jong-un seven times.

The former diplomat who worked in Cuba When he fled to South Korea with his family in November last yearHe admitted that he was “trembling with nerves” when he first met Kim Jong-un.

But every time he had a meeting, he found that the leader was “smiling and in a good mood.”

“He often compliments others and laughs. He seems like an ordinary person,” Mr. Li said. But he has no doubt that Kim Jong-un will do whatever it takes to ensure his own survival, even if it means killing all 25 million of his people: “He could have been a wonderful man and father, but turning him into a god made him He turned into a terrible monster.

In an hours-long interview with the BBC, Mr Lee offered a rare understanding of what the world’s most secretive and repressive country hopes to achieve.

He said that although talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un collapsed in 2019, North Korea still views Trump as someone who can negotiate on its nuclear weapons program.

Trump has previously praised his relationship with Kim Jong Un as a key achievement of his presidency. He famously said that two people “fell in love” through letters. Just last month, he told a rally that Kim Jong Un wanted to see him return to office: “If you want to know the truth, I think he misses me.”

Mr Lee said North Korea hoped to exploit such close personal ties to its own advantage, contradicting Pyongyang’s official statement last month that it “doesn’t care” who becomes president.

Mr Lee said the nuclear-armed nation would never get rid of its weapons and might seek a deal to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions.

But he said Pyongyang would not negotiate in good faith. Agreeing to freeze its nuclear program “would be a tactic, 100 percent deception,” he said, adding that it was therefore a “dangerous approach” that “will only lead to North Korea’s increased power.”

Eight months after his defection, Ri Il-kyu lives with his family in South Korea. Accompanied by a police bodyguard and two intelligence officers, he explained his decision to abandon the government.

Mr. Li said he was hit over the years by corruption, bribery and a lack of freedom, and finally reached his breaking point when his request to travel to Mexico for surgery for a herniated cervical disc was denied. “I live a top 1% life in North Korea, but it’s still worse than a middle-class family in South Korea.”

Mr Li earned just $500 (£294) a month as a diplomat in Cuba, so he would illegally sell Cuban cigars in China to earn enough money to support his family.

When he first told his wife that he wanted to defect, she was so upset that she ended up in hospital with a heart attack. He thereafter kept his plans secret, sharing them with her and his children only six hours before the flight.

He described it as a “life or death gamble.” Ordinary North Koreans found to be defecting are often tortured for several months and then released, he said. “But for elites like us, there are only two outcomes: either imprisonment in a political prison camp or execution by firing squad.”

“The fear and fear were overwhelming. I could accept my own death, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my family being dragged into the Gulag,” he said. Although Mr. Li never believed in God, as he nervously waited at the airport gate in the middle of the night, he began to pray.

The last known high-profile defection to South Korea was that of Tae Yong-ho in 2016. recently named The new leader of the Korean Presidential Unification Advisory Council.

Referring to North Korea’s recent closer ties with Russia, Ri Yong Ho said the war in Ukraine was a blessing for Pyongyang. The United States and South Korea estimate that North Korea has sold millions of rounds of ammunition to Moscow to support its invasion in exchange for food, fuel and possibly military technology.

Mr Lee said the deal’s main benefit for Pyongyang was the ability to continue developing its nuclear weapons.

He said that through the deal, Russia created a “loophole” in tough international sanctions on North Korea, allowing it to “freely develop nuclear weapons and missiles and strengthen its defenses while bypassing the need to appeal to the United States.” . Lift sanctions.”

But Mr Lee said Kim understood the relationship was temporary and that Russia might sever ties after the war. For this reason, Mr. Lee said, Kim Jong Un has not given up on the United States.

“North Korea understands that its only way to survive, to eliminate the threat of invasion and to develop its economy is to normalize relations with the United States.”

While Russia may have given North Korea temporary relief from its economic pain, Mr Lee said North Korea’s complete border closure during the pandemic “severely damaged the country’s economy and people’s lives”.

Mr Lee said that when the border reopened in 2023 and diplomats prepared to return, North Korean families asked them to “bring everything you have, even your used toothbrush, because North Korea has nothing left”.

North Korea’s leaders demand complete loyalty from their citizens, and the slightest hint of dissent can result in jail time. But Mr Lee said years of hardship had eroded people’s loyalty because no one now expected to get anything from their “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un.

“There is no longer true loyalty to the regime or to Kim Jong Un, it is a forced loyalty and one must be loyal or face death,” he said.

The recent changes have been largely driven by an influx of South Korean films, dramas and music, which are smuggled into North Korea and are illegal to watch and listen to.

“People don’t watch Korean content because they have capitalist beliefs and they just want to pass the time in a monotonous and bleak life,” Mr. Lee said, but then they start asking, “Why do Koreans live like this?” We But being broke and living like a first world country?

But Mr Lee said that while South Korean content was changing North Korea, it would not lead to its collapse because of the existing control system. “Kim Jong Un knows very well that loyalty is waning and people are evolving, and that’s why he’s intensifying his reign of terror,” he said.

The government has introduced laws to severely punish those who consume and distribute Korean content. this BBC interviews a defector Last year, he said he witnessed someone being executed after sharing Korean music and TV shows.

Mr Lee said North Korea’s decision late last year to abandon its decades-old policy of eventual reunification with South Korea was an attempt to further isolate the South Korean people.

He described it as Kim Jong Un’s “most evil act” because all North Koreans dream of reunification. He said that while North Korea’s past leaders “stole people’s freedom, money and human rights, Kim Jong Un stole the only thing they had left: hope.”

Outside North Korea, Kim Jong Un’s health has been a source of concern, with some believing his premature death could trigger the regime’s collapse. Earlier this week, South Korean intelligence agencies estimated Kim Jong-un’s weight at 140 kilograms, putting him at risk for cardiovascular disease.

But Mr. Lee believes that surveillance and control systems are now so sophisticated that Kim Jong-un’s death does not pose a threat to the authoritarian regime. “Another evil leader will just take his place,” he said.

It is widely speculated Mr. Kim is grooming his little daughterZhu Ai was thought to be his successor, but Mr Li dismissed the idea.

He said Joo lacked the legitimacy and prestige to be North Korea’s leader, especially since the sacred Paektu bloodline used by the Kim family to justify their rule is believed to be passed down only by the men in the family.

Mr. Li said that at first, people were fascinated by Zhu Ai, but not anymore. They questioned why she took part in missile tests like other children instead of going to school and wore luxurious designer clothes instead of a school uniform.

Mr Lee said the international community, including North Korea’s allies China and Russia, must come together to “persevere in persuading North Korea to change” rather than wait for Kim to fall ill or die.

“This is the only thing that can end the North Korean dictatorship,” he added.

Mr. Li hopes that his defection will inspire his colleagues not to betray themselves but to promote small changes within. He has no lofty ambitions, hoping that North Koreans will be able to vote or travel, just that they can choose what jobs to do, have enough to eat, and be able to share their opinions freely among friends.

For now, though, his priority is helping his family adjust to their new life in South Korea and helping his children integrate into society.

At the end of our interview, he proposed a scenario. “Imagine that I offer you an adventure and tell you that if we succeed, we will win a great victory, but if we fail, it will mean death.

“You wouldn’t agree, would you? Well, it was a choice I imposed on my family, and they silently agreed and followed me,” he said.

“This is a debt I have to repay throughout my life.”