「自由を見つけに行こう」　脱北の外交官、娘を学校へ送る途中で亡命

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】脱北したことが先週明らかになった北朝鮮の駐クウェート大使代理だった男性が、1日の米CNNとのインタビューで、10代の娘を学校へ送り届けるふりをして韓国大使館へ亡命した経緯を語った。（写真は資料写真）
　「お母さん、お父さんと一緒に、自由を見つけに行こう」──リュ・ヒョヌ氏は車の中で娘にそう告げ、これから韓国大使館へ向かうと明かしたと、当時を振り返った。娘は、人生を一変させる突然の提案に「ショック」を受けた様子だったが、「いいよ」と答えたという。そこで、リュ氏は学校ではなく、在クウェート韓国大使館へと妻子を連れて行った。
　リュ氏一家は２０１９年９月に韓国に到着したが、その事実は先週まで伏せられていた。メディア露出は今回のＣＮＮインタビューが初めて。
　韓国に移住して１年以上が過ぎたとき、リュ氏は娘に、新しい家のどこが一番好きかと聞いた。すると娘は、「好きなだけインターネットができるところ」と答えた。
　リュ氏は現在、北朝鮮に残してきた自分と妻の親類の身の安全を心配している。北朝鮮政府は、特権を有する高官が脱北した場合、親類縁者を罰することで知られているためだ。８３歳の母親らについて話しながら涙ぐんだリュ氏は、「２１世紀にもなって、北朝鮮がこのような封建的な一族連座制の処罰を行っていることにぞっとする」と述べた。
　リュ氏は、複数の報道によれば、北朝鮮最高指導部の秘密資金を管理する朝鮮労働党「３９号室」の室長だった全日春（チョン・イルチュン）氏の娘婿。２０１７年から駐クウェート大使代理を務めていた。
　北朝鮮の財政についてリュ氏は、かつて内部事情を知っていた者として、国際的な制裁によって大きな打撃を受けているとの見方を示し、「制裁は続けるべきだと思う」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/02/02-12:47）

A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait told his daughter they were going to defect to the South while pretending to drive her to school, Ryu Hyun-woo told media on Monday.
Come with Mom and Dad to find freedom, Ryu recalled telling his daughter in an interview with CNN.
The teenager was shocked at the sudden suggestion that would change their lives, but responded okay, he said -- and he took them instead to the South Korean embassy.
Ryu and his family reached the capitalist, democratic South in September 2019 but their arrival was kept secret until last week, and the interview aired Monday was his first media communication.
About 30,000 North Koreans have fled repression and poverty to settle in the South, almost all of them first secretly crossing the porous border with China.
Defections by senior officials are rare, although Ryu's arrival came just two months after the North's former acting ambassador to Italy Jo Song Gil also sought asylum.
Tae Yong-ho is another high-profile defector who fled his post as North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain in 2016. He was elected a South Korean opposition MP last year after publishing a best-selling memoir that earned him celebrity-like status.
After more than a year in the South, Ryu asked his daughter what she liked the most about her new home.
I like the fact that I can use the internet as much as I want, she replied.
Ryu now worries about the safety of his and his wife's extended families remaining in the North.
The isolated regime is known to punish relatives of privileged defectors as a warning to others contemplating similar decisions.
I think that North Korea having such feudal collective familial punishment in the 21st century is appalling, said the former diplomat, who teared up while talking about his relatives, including his 83-year-old mother.
Any thought of them being punished for what I've done just hurts my heart.
According to reports, Ryu is the son-in-law of Jon Il Chun, the former head of Office 39, which manages the secret funds of the North Korean leadership.
He became temporary acting ambassador in September 2017 after Kuwait expelled envoy So Chang Sik following the Gulf nation's adoption of a UN resolution over Pyongyang's weapons programmes.
As a former insider, he said international sanctions against the regime were having an impact on the cash-strapped state.
The current sanctions on North Korea are unprecedented and strong... I think sanctions against North Korea should continue.