AFP, SEOUL: South Korea said Monday a North Korean colonel in charge of spy operations had defected to the South, along with a diplomat and three family members.
The army colonel had handled espionage targeting South Korea at the North’s General Bureau of Reconnaissance before arriving in Seoul last year, the South’s Yonhap news agency said.
Unification and defence ministry spokesmen in Seoul confirmed the report but declined to give details such as the officer’s name and exact date of defection.
“He is the highest-level military official to have ever defected to the South,” said a government official quoted by Yonhap.