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Kim Jong Un’s daughter may accompany her father to missile launches, but that doesn’t mean she is North Korea’s future leader, says a man whose job was once to protect the hereditary regime.
Kim Hyun-woo used to work for North Korea’s top intelligence agency. He defected to South Korea in 2014 and is now on his first-ever visit to the United States.
In an exclusive interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly, he shared his insights into why he fled the country, possible succession scenarios in the regime, and diplomacy with the U.S. amid mounting tension over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.
During his 17 years at the Ministry of State Security – a career possible only for elite North Koreans with credible social and familial background – Kim served in various divisions, analyzing intelligence data and at one point working at an overseas branch.
The ministry’s job, Kim explained, is to « track down, identify and catch what the regime views as hostile agents or hostile activities within the state. »
And in North Korea, acts as seemingly mundane as watching a South Korean drama can be considered « hostile » and lead to severe consequences like several years in prison, according to defectors’ testimonies.
The ministry’s extensive network of agents surveils North Korean people, including high-ranking officials of the military and the ruling party. It is also involved in running political prison camps.
Because of its social control functions, the ministry plays an important role, especially during leadership transitions.
The South Korean intelligence agency reported that dozens of senior North Korean officials were executed in the early years of the current leader Kim Jong Un’s regime. Among them was Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong Un’s uncle, to whom the ministry ordered execution in a special military trial in 2013.
The ministry’s immense authority and proximity to power also meant that during the transitional period when Kim Jong Un rose to power in 2011, it experienced turbulent shifts. Former agent Kim Hyun-woo said existing leadership members of the organization were persecuted by newly appointed officials.
Kim feared that he, too, would fall victim to the power struggle, even as he was posted abroad at the time. So he fled with his family and has never returned to his home country.
« Sadly, I do not know what happened to my relatives, » Kim said. Closed borders and a lack of information
Although the ministry’s internal conflict drove Kim to defect, the years he spent there also provided him with the information he needed to safely make his way to South Korea.
The experience also informs his current work of researching North Korea at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a Seoul think tank affiliated with the South Korean spy agency, National Intelligence Service.
Firsthand insights into North Korea’s political and social system from defectors like Kim are valuable, as information flowing into and out of the country is highly limited, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
