Defector’s testimony offers ‘sickening’ glimpse of North Korea’s violent purges

In an interview with the South’s Chosun newspaper, the 52-year-old described the firing-squad execution in February 2019 of Han Song-ryol, a former foreign vice-minister in charge of American affairs.

According to Ri, senior foreign ministry officials were forced to witness Han’s violent demise at the Kang Kon Military Academy near Pyongyang. “The scene was so sickening that those who saw the execution were unable to eat for days,” Ri said, adding he was absent as he was preparing to move to Havana.

But an analyst who spoke to This Week in Asia warned such claims from defectors should be taken with a “pinch of salt”, as they are prone to exaggerate accounts to boost their value as informants.

Ri also claimed that in late 2019, a former foreign minister was punished for corruption by being sent to a concentration camp with his family.

Unconfirmed local reports from 2019 said Han had been exiled to a remote mine in North Hamgyong province for re-indoctrination, in the northernmost part of North Korea.

Ri, the defector, spent a total of nine years in Havana over two stints, tasked by Pyongyang with preventing Cuba from establishing diplomatic ties with Seoul. However, those efforts ultimately failed, as Cuba – a traditional ally of the North – forged relations with South Korea in February.

Ri fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November.

Most statements offered by North Korean defectors were second-hand or hearsay that were “almost impossible to confirm” independently, said Yang Moo-jin, a political-science professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

“We’d better take their statements with a pinch of salt, as they are understandably tempted to exaggerate what they see or hear to boost their value as