Senior N. Korea Intelligence Aide Defects to South

A senior North Korean intelligence official sought political asylum here Sunday in what local reports called the highest-ranking defection to the south since the end of the Korean War.

The Foreign Ministry said that Kim Jeong Min, 45, arrived in Seoul on Sunday after his defection at a South Korean embassy in Europe. The ministry would not say exactly where or when he defected.

Kim, who had been carrying a North Korean diplomatic passport, sought political asylum while he was traveling in “a certain European country on official business,” it said.

Kim had been a senior official in North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security, a powerful intelligence organization, the ministry said without elaborating.

Local press reports said Kim would be the highest-ranking North Korean government official to defect to South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

On Flight From Bangkok

The Korean news agency Yonhap said Kim arrived in Seoul on a Korean Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, early Sunday, but other details of his flight were not released.

Kim, wearing a blue suit and shielded by security guards, ignored a flurry of questions by reporters as South Korean officials escorted him through the airport into a car. Officials said he was being questioned.

Ministry officials said Kim wanted asylum in Seoul and the government had honored his request “out of humanitarian concern and according to international practices.”

South Korean authorities “will conduct thorough investigations into the background, true motive and other circumstances surrounding Mr. Kim’s defection and will make an official announcement on the result of the investigation in due course,” a ministry statement said.