UK Edition
North Korean maths prodigy completes defection to Seoul after two months in Hong Kong
A maths prodigy who was permitted to take part in a international Olympiad in Hong Kong has become the latest member of North Korea's elite to flee the repressive regime.
The 18-year-old student, named as Jong Yol-ri, sought asylum at the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong after evading his minders towards the end of the International Mathematical Olympiad in July, where he won his third consecutive silver medal.
Mr Jong was only able to complete his journey to South Korea at the weekend, the Hong Kong-based Factwire news agency reported.
Concerned over his security, the consulate assigned a diplomat to Mr Jong for the 80 days he was in Hong Kong and additional police were stationed outside the building.
Mr Jong entertained himself with computer games in a conference room that was placed off-limits to other personnel at the consulate, The South China Morning Post reported.
South Korean media have reported that Mr Jong decided to defect after clandestinely watching South Korean television and listening to radio broadcasts at his home in Gangwon Province, on the border with the South.
The Chosun Ilbo reported that his father, a maths teacher, had also urged his son to go to South Korea. Whether that claim is accurate or not, the North Korean government has been stepping up its punishments for the relatives of defectors and is unlikely to be lenient towards Mr Jong's family.
South Korean diplomats have declined to comment on Mr Jong's case, but his is understood to have arrived in Seoul on Saturday.
The latest defection of a member of North Korea's elite is yet another embarrassment to Pyongyang, where leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly conducting widespread purges of senior members of the government and bureaucracy.
Described as a "reign of terror", the instability has triggered the defection of at least seven North Korean diplomats from overseas missions this year alone. The defectors include Thae Yong-ho, deputy head of the North Korean embassy in London, who arrived in Seoul with his wife and three children after fleeing in July.
On Thursday, a North Korean soldier walked across the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone, which separates that two Koreas, to defect.