A senior North Korean diplomat stationed in Cuba flees to South Korea.

A senior North Korean diplomat who was serving as the head of political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Havana fled to South Korea from the island along with his wife and son.

Although the escape took place in early November of last year, the event was not made public until now, when Ri Il-gyu, the protagonist of the daring escape, granted an interview to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

In the interview, the 52-year-old former councilor confirmed that he flew out of Cuba with his family, but did not provide more details on how he managed the high-risk escape.

Asked about the reasons that led him to consider desertion as a way out, the former diplomat said that there were several factors, including the unfair evaluation of his efforts as well as the demand for a bribe by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country.

In addition, both his parents and his in-laws had passed away in North Korea, and they had no direct family members who could be subject to reprisals.

In August 2019, when I went to Pyongyang to open a North Korean restaurant in Cuba, the deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' representative office demanded a significant bribe from me. As I did not have the funds, I postponed the bribe and said 'we'll discuss it later', which led to resentment and attempts to remove me. After that, I consistently received harsh evaluations of my work," explained the former diplomat.

Ri Il-gyu added that in 2023 he requested permission to go to Mexico to receive medical treatment that was not available in Cuba, but his request was denied.

Last year, when I was suffering nerve damage due to an injury in my cervical spine, I requested permission from the Ministry to go to Mexico to receive treatment, as Cuba lacks medical equipment due to sanctions. Less than 24 hours later, my request was denied. It infuriated me, and I became convinced that my decision to leave North Korea was correct," he recounted.

The former diplomat says that it was around the middle of last year that he seriously considered the possibility of defecting. He says he lost seven kilograms in three months due to pure stress.

Finally, six hours before the escape, he told his wife and son that they would be changing countries.

To the question about how he boarded a plane if North Korea does not allow its officials direct access to their passports, the former high-ranking official declined to answer.

Explaining the details would allow North Korean authorities to preemptively block those methods, which could harm those wishing to defect after me. The time I waited at the airport gate felt like years. For the first time, I fervently prayed for God to protect my family and understood why people believe in religion," concluded Ri Il-gyu, who did not involve any Cuban entity in the escape, although it is hard to believe that there were no Cubans in his escape plan.

Ri Il-gyu has become the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea since 2016.

Among Ri's functions at the embassy was to prevent South Korea and Cuba from establishing diplomatic relations.

Interestingly, just three months later, in February of this year, the South Korean nation and the Cuban Government reestablished diplomatic relations and are currently in the process of opening embassies in both nations.

In the interview, which took place in a hotel in Seoul on July 14, the former North Korean diplomat did not miss the opportunity to criticize Kim Jong-un's "two-state policy against reunification" as "an act that erases the soul of the nation."

Last year, 196 North Korean defectors arrived in Seoul, compared to the 2,700 a decade ago, according to data from the South Korean government cited by press agencies.

Details about North Korean defections often take months to come to light as they must be authorized by authorities and go through an education course on South Korean society and systems.

Ri entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea in 1999 and went on to receive praise from Kim Jong-un for successfully negotiating with Panama to lift the detention of a North Korean ship that was caught carrying weapons from Cuba in 2013.