14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2024 — With a salary of 500 dollars and being the second man of the North Korean Embassy in Havana, Ri Il-gyu – who escaped from his country last November – managed to smuggle Cuban cigars into China. The business, with which he financially supported his family during his mission on the Island, was one of the most picturesque pieces of information that the former diplomat revealed this Friday to the British network BBC, about his highs and lows in reaching Seoul, where he now resides. Ri was considered part of the 1% of the population of North Korea that can be considered “rich.” However, he stated, his standard of living was still below that of a middle-class family in the South. Hence, he did what was necessary – including the sale of cigars – to improve the lives of his family.
He lived in Cuba from 2011 to 2016, and then, in a second period, between 2019 and 2023. The Island became a strategic ally for North Korea because of its geographical proximity to the United States, and Kim Jong-un recognized Cuba’s place in the tensions between the two countries.
With cigar smuggling he was able to support his family during their time on the Island
On the issue of nuclear weapons, for example – a common subject when discussing North Korea – Ri considers that Kim “will never give up his nuclear weapons” no matter how much he seems to be in favor of Donald Trump, who could once again be the leading voice in Washington.
He admits, however, that Pyongyang could reactivate the negotiations, paused in 2019, to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of the U.S. sanctions that weigh it down. The North Korean regime “will not negotiate in good faith,” stressed Ri, who warned against the “tricks ” and “100% deceptions” that Kim could be plotting.
About Russia, another variable in the international equation, Ri believes that its invasion of Ukraine is “a blessing for Pyongyang,” because the North Korean regime has been able to sell millions of dollars worth of ammunition to Moscow to support its incursion. In return, North Korea has received all kinds of basic necessities such as food and fuel, which are scarce throughout the country, in addition to Russian military technology.
He also explained that Russia created a “legal vacuum” through the agreement it signed with Pyongyang, which allows North Korea to “freely develop its nuclear weapons and missiles” with the intention of strengthening its military defenses, without having to “ask the United States” to reconsider the sanctions.
“North Korea understands that the only way to survive, eliminate the threat of invasion and develop its economy is to normalize relations with the United States,” said the former diplomat.
“He will not negotiate in good faith,” stressed Ri, who warned against the “tricks” and “100% deceptions” that Kim Jong-un could be plotting
Ri personally knows Kim, with whom he met seven times face to face, “trembling and nervous.” He remembers him as a “normal and ordinary person” in his dealings with others. He is interested in “guaranteeing his survival, at all costs,” says Ri. “He could have been a good person and a good father. But they molded him into a monster. The myth turned him into a monster,” he says.
Ri said last July that his desertion occurred after he was frustrated by the corruption and repression in his country. After the coronavirus pandemic, he had been summoned, like the rest of the officials abroad, to return home carrying in his luggage all kinds of second-hand items from used toothbrushes to spoons, to be able to cope with the shortages that persists inside their borders.
Eight months after turning his back on Pyongyang, the former diplomat lives all the time accompanied by a group of bodyguards assigned to him by the South Korean police and two intelligence agents, who protect him and his family from possible reprisals from the North Korean regime.
“Kim Jong-un knows very well that people’s loyalty is decreasing and that people are changing, which is why he has intensified his reign of terror,” Ki said after reflecting on the cultural war that is being waged between the north and the south with the smuggling of movies, television series and music that cause, little by little, his compatriots to ask a radical question: “Why do southerners live the life of a first world country and we live in poverty?”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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