N. Korea Sent 50,000 South, Defector Reportedly Says

North Korea’s highest-ranking defector was reported Friday to have disclosed that his reclusive Stalinist country has infiltrated 50,000 spies into South Korea.

“Fifty Thousand Spies in South Korea,” a banner headline in the newspaper Munhwa Ilbo quoted defector Hwang Jang Yop as telling a senior South Korean official.

Hwang, a secretary of North Korea’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party, turned up Wednesday at the South Korean Consulate in Beijing, posing an embarrassing dilemma for the Chinese.

The newspaper said Hwang in August told a South Korean diplomat in Beijing that he wanted to seek political asylum. “Secretary Hwang said at that time more than 50,000 North Korean spies were operating in the South,” the official said.

The ruling New Korea Party urged intelligence authorities to launch a thorough search for North Korean moles in the South.

“We should take seriously remarks made by defector Hwang Jang Yop that North Koreans are planted deep in the South Korean power structure,” party spokesman Kim Chul said.