The highest-ranking defector from the repressive North Korean regime has now won a parliamentary seat in the South Korean elections — becoming the first-ever defector to do so.
Thae Yong-ho, 57, won a seat on the National Assembly of South Korea with more than 58 percent of the vote on Wednesday, giving him a seat under the opposition United Future Party, the BBC reported Thursday.
Yong-ho was North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UK until he defected in 2016, prompting Kim Jong-un’s government to label him “human scum,” and accused him of stealing government secrets.
But rather than live out his life in peace in the democratic south, Yong-ho made his campaign a message of hope to those trapped in the repressive northern part of the peninsula.
“I want to tell them that there is a new way for their future,” he told CNN.
Approximately 1,000 North Koreans defect to the south every year, the network said, and there are about 33,000 now living in South Korea.
Wednesday’s parliamentary election saw a record turnout of more than 66 percent, despite the country still being on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite Yong-ho’s victory, President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party won a comfortable victory, taking 163 seats in the 300-member assembly.