Kim Jong Un wants Trump back, elite defector tells BBC

Donald Trump’s return to the White House would be a “once in a thousand year opportunity” for North Korea, according to a man in a unique position to know.

Ri Il Kyu is the highest-ranking defector to defect to North Korea since 2016, and has met face-to-face with Kim Jong Un on seven separate occasions.

The former diplomat, who worked in Cuba when he fled to South Korea with his family last Novemberhe admits to being “nervous” when he first met Kim Jong Un.

But during each meeting, he found the leader “smiling and happy”.

“He praised people and always laughed. He seems like a normal person,” said Mr. Ri. But there is no doubt that Mr Kim would do anything to ensure his survival, including killing all of his 25 million people: “He would have been a wonderful man and father, but making him a god made him a terrible creature.”

In an hour-long interview with the BBC, Mr Ri offers a rare insight into what the world’s most secretive and oppressive countries hope to achieve.

He said that North Korea still considers Mr. Trump as someone who can negotiate with him on its nuclear weapons program, even though talks between him and Kim Jong Un broke down in 2019.

Mr Trump has hailed the relationship with Kim as a key success of his presidency. He was famous for saying that these “lovers” wrote letters to each other. Just last month, he told a meeting that Mr Kim would like to see him return to power: “I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.”

North Korea hopes it can use this close personal relationship to its advantage, Mr Ri said, contradicting an official statement from Pyongyang last month that it “didn’t care” who became president.

A nuclear power would never give up its weapons, Mr Ri said, and would likely seek a deal to freeze its nuclear program in order for the US to lift sanctions.

But he said that Pyongyang will not negotiate honestly. Agreeing to stop its nuclear program “would be a trick, a 100% deception”, he said, adding that this is a “dangerous way” that “will only lead to the strengthening of North Korea”.

Eight months after his defection, Ri Il Kyu is now living with his family in the South Korean capital of Seoul. Accompanied by two police and intelligence guards, he explains his decision to leave his government.

After years of being tried for corruption, bribery, and the lack of freedom he faced, Mr Ri says he was finally told on the brink when his request to go to Mexico for surgery on a slipped disc in his neck was rejected. “I was living the life of the top 1% in North Korea, but that’s still worse than a middle-class family in the South.”

As a diplomat in Cuba, Mr Ri only made $500 (£294) a month, so he would sell illegal Cuban cigars in China to make enough to support his family.

When he started to tell his wife about his desire to be flawless, he became very disturbed and ended up in the hospital due to heart problems. After that she kept her plans a secret, telling herself and her child six hours before their flight left.

Defining it as “a life or death gamble”. Ordinary North Koreans caught with a defect will usually be tortured for a few months, then released, he said. “But for the elite like us there are only two outcomes – life in a political prison camp, or execution by a firing squad.”

“The fear and dread was overwhelming. I was able to accept my death, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my family being dragged down by illness,” he said. Although Mr. Ri had never believed in God, as he waited nervously at the airport gate in the middle of the night, he began to pray.

The last known high-profile rebellion in the South was by Tae Yong-ho in 2016. Former deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, newly named the new leader of the council that advises the president of South Korea on integration.

Turning to North Korea’s recent close ties with Russia, Mr Ri says the war in Ukraine has been a boon for Pyongyang. The US and South Korea estimate that the North has sold millions of ammunition to Moscow to support its offensive, in exchange for food, fuel and military technology.

Mr. Ri says that the main benefit of this agreement for Pyongyang is the ability to continue developing nuclear weapons.

With this agreement, Russia had created a “loophole” in the strict international sanctions on North Korea, he says, which had allowed it, “to freely develop its nuclear weapons and missiles and strengthen its defense, while bypassing the need to apply to the US for sanctions relief”.

But Mr Ri says Kim Jong Un understands that this relationship is temporary, and that after the war Russia may cut ties. For this reason, Mr. Kim has not abandoned the US, said Mr. Ri.

“North Korea understands that the only way for its survival, the only way to end the threat of attack and develop its economy, is to normalize relations with the United States.”

While Russia may have given North Korea a temporary respite from its economic woes, Mr Ri says the complete closure of North Korea’s borders during the violence has “destroyed the country’s economy and people’s lives”.

As the borders reopen in 2023 and diplomats prepare to return, Mr Ri says families back home have asked them to “bring anything and everything you have, even your used toothbrushes, because there is nothing left in North Korea”.

The North Korean leader demands absolute loyalty from his citizens and the mere act of dissent can lead to arrest. But Mr Ri says the years of hardship have eroded people’s loyalty, as now no one expected to get anything from their “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un.

“There is no longer any real loyalty to the government or to Kim Jong Un, forced loyalty, where one must be loyal or face death,” he said.

The recent change was largely inspired by the influx of South Korean films, dramas and music, which have been smuggled into the North, and are illegal to watch and listen to.

“People don’t watch the content of South Korea because they have capitalist beliefs, they are just trying to waste time in their stressful and hopeless lives,” said Mr. Ri, but then they start asking, “why do those in the South live the life of the first world while we are poor”?

But Mr Ri says that even if South Korea’s content is changing North Korea, it will not bring about its downfall, because of the control systems in place. “Kim Jong Un knows very well that credibility is falling, that people are changing, that’s why he is strengthening his reign of terror,” he said.

The government has introduced laws to severely punish those who use and distribute South Korean content. I The BBC talked about one aspect last year who said he had seen someone killed after participating in South Korean music and television programs.

North Korea’s decision, at the end of last year, to abandon its decades-old policy of finally reuniting with the South, was another attempt to divide the people of the South, said Mr Ri.

This, he described as “the worst act” of Kim Jong Un, because all North Koreans dream of reunification. He says that while the former leaders of North Korea “stole people’s freedom, money and human rights, Kim Jong Un is robbing them of what is left: hope”.

Outside of North Korea, the health of Kim Jong Un is being closely watched, some believe that his premature death may cause the collapse of the regime. Earlier this week South Korea’s intelligence agency estimated that Kim weighs 140kg, putting him at risk of heart disease.

But Mr Ri believes the surveillance and control system is too well established for Kim’s death to threaten the dictatorship. He says: “Another bad leader will simply take his place.”

It has been widely assumed that Mr. Kim grooms his little daughterit is assumed that he will be called Ju Ae, who will replace him, but Mr. Ri rejects this idea.

Ju Ae, he says, lacked the authority and popularity to be North Korea’s leader, especially since the sacred Paektu bloodline, which the Kims use for their rule, is believed to run through the men of the family.

At first, people were fascinated by Ju Ae, said Mr. Ri, but not anymore. They asked why he was attending archery practice instead of going to school, and wearing fancy, tailored clothes instead of his school uniform, like other children.

Instead of waiting for Mr Kim to get sick or die, Mr Ri says the international community should have come together, including allies in North Korea, China and Russia, to “continue to persuade him to change”.

“This is the only thing that will bring about the end of the North Korean dictatorship,” he adds.

Mr. Ri hopes that his rebellion inspires his peers, not to bother, but to push for small changes from within. He has no lofty aspirations, that North Koreans will be able to vote or travel, just that they can choose what jobs to work, have enough food to eat, and be able to share their opinions freely among friends.

Although for now, the main thing for him is to help his family settle into their new life in South Korea, and for his child to fit into society.

At the end of our conversation, he revealed the situation. “Just think I’m giving you a business, I told you, if we succeed, we win a lot, but if we fail, it means death.

“You wouldn’t agree, would you? That’s what I forced on my family, they quietly agreed and followed me,” he said.

“This is a debt I have to pay for the rest of my life.”