North Korea's top envoy has defected: S. Korea

North Korea's top envoy has defected: S. Korea

SEOUL (Agencies): North Korea's top envoy to Egypt, Jang Sung- gil, and his wife are on their way to a third country to defect, a South Korean foreign ministry official said yesterday, while in a second defection a North Korean soldier crossed the demilitarized zone to the South.

"You can say he and his wife have already left Egypt, and are now heading for a third country to defect," spokesman Lee Kyu- hyong said.

In Cairo, Reuters reported yesterday that North Korean embassy officials scuffled with journalists in front of their barricaded embassy in Egypt after denying North Korea's ambassador had defected to a third country.

An embassy official who declined to be named told Reuters "no, this is wrong news. The ambassador is in the embassy".

He refused to let journalists see or speak to the ambassador, Jang Seung-gil.

Another official told Reuters Sunday the ambassador was traveling and would return to Cairo within days.

A Seoul foreign ministry official had earlier confirmed that Jang was known to have been missing since Friday, but refused to confirm reports he had walked into the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

If the move is confirmed, Jang, 48, would the highest North Korean diplomat to defect.

Only two North Korean diplomats are among the 840 North Koreans who have defected to South Korea since 1948.

Meanwhile, a North Korean soldier defected to the South early yesterday in the western coastal area of the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, the South Korean defense ministry said.

The soldier, identified as Kang Hyun, 22, was "in good condition at the time he was found," a defense ministry spokesman said, without making it clear whether the defector crossed the land or the sea border between the two Koreas.

Foreign ministry officials here refused to confirm newspaper reports that Jang and his wife, Choi Hey-ok, had contacted U.S. diplomats in Cairo before leaving.

They also failed to confirm a press report that Jang's older brother, Jang Sung-ho, a North Korean trade official, had simultaneously disappeared with his family in Paris.

South Korea has been cautious in handling defectors since Pyongyang's ruling Communist Party secretary Hwang Jang-yop defected through Beijing in February.

The sensational defection of Hwang, architect of the North's guiding juche (self-reliance) philosophy, came amid joint efforts by Washington and Seoul to get Pyongyang back to peace talks.

The ambassador was to return to Pyongyang early next month after concluding his three-year term in Cairo. His wife was a famous actress who starred in "A Maid Selling Flowers," one of the North's most popular plays, Yonhap said.

Since the disappearance of his 19-year-old son Jang Chol-min on Aug. 22 last year, rumors had abounded that Jang would be replaced, Yonhap said, adding that Egyptian authorities had concluded the son might have gone to Canada.

The couple had close connections with North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, who has ruled the Stalinist state without portfolio since the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994, Yonhap said.

The agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Jang had been greatly disturbed by his son's disappearance and reacted hysterically whenever pressed to talk about his son.

Jang attended few diplomatic events in Cairo, and rarely hosted gatherings at his residence, the agency said.