[INTERVIEW] North Korea's Millennials, Gen Zers may problem regime: Tae Yong-ho

Excessive-profile defector hopes his profession trajectory will affect NK elite

By Kwak Yeon-soo

Tae Yong-ho, the previous North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain who defected to South Korea in 2016, lately took workplace because the secretary common of the Peaceable Unification Advisory Council, a presidential advisory physique chargeable for growing a imaginative and prescient for peaceable unification based mostly on nationwide consensus.

His appointment was notably shocking, because it marks the primary time a North Korean defector has been given a vice-ministerial place in South Korea. Tae, who additionally served as a lawmaker for the ruling Folks Energy Get together from 2020 to 2024, expressed hope that his profession trajectory will make a major influence on North Korea’s elite.

“North Korea’s elite can not assist however change into agitated by how nicely defectors, like me, are handled within the South. They may marvel if there’s a place and future for them right here as nicely. That’s what North Korean chief Kim Jong-un fears essentially the most,” Tae stated throughout an interview with The Korea Instances, Tuesday.

In recent times, a rising variety of North Korea’s elite, together with high-level diplomats stationed overseas, have defected to the South. In keeping with the Ministry of Unification, the variety of North Korea’s elite who defected beneath Kim Jong-un has greater than doubled in comparison with those that fled beneath former chief Kim Jong-il. Between 2012 and June 2024, about 134 North Koreans recognized as members of the elite defected to South Korea, whereas solely 54 did so between July 1997 and December 2011.

Tae confused that the explanations behind the so-called “elite” defections have shifted.

“Up to now, once I defected to the South, it was the mother and father who made the choice to flee the nation for the sake of their kids. However these days, kids who had been raised abroad and study South Korean tradition by means of their mates, change into disillusioned with the regime and ask their mother and father to flee,” Tae stated.

He defined that North Korean Millennials and Gen Z are driving these modifications as they change into more and more uncovered to the skin world.

“North Korean Millennials and Gen Z consider there is no such thing as a future again residence. Adults born within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s are the generations that may shake up the North Korean regime,” Tae stated, including {that a} North Korean resident and soldier who defected to the South in August had been each of their 20s.

“Folks born within the ’60s and ’70s have heat reminiscences of a secure regime. They’ve nostalgia, so even when they watch smuggled copies of South Korean dramas and movies, they simply really feel conflicted. However these born after the ’90s have by no means truly skilled the great instances. As well as, extra younger adults have gotten tech-savvy and gaining glimpses of the skin world,” Tae stated.

Tae defined how President Yoon Suk Yeol’s 8.15 Unification Doctrine charts a brand new path towards reaching unification in comparison with earlier administrations by emphasizing “change from under.”

“Yoon’s technique is to speak immediately with North Korean residents and alter their notion of the regime. This could stress the North Korean authorities and create a brand new situation for unification.” Tae stated.

“One approach to fire up the minds of North Koreans is to share success tales of defectors who’re incomes greater than the nationwide common and dwelling their goals of a vibrant life in South Korea.”

Law enforcement officials management visitors after a trash-carrying balloon despatched by North Korea landed in the course of a highway close to Chung-Ang College Hospital in Dongjak District, Seoul, July 24. Yonhap

He stated North Korea sending trash balloons signifies that the North’s ruling class have begun to know that the facility lies with the folks in South Korea.

“At first, North Korea warned the South Korean authorities to cease rights teams from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets. However the authorities refused to take action, saying {that a} regulation banning the sending of such leaflets into North Korea is unconstitutional. Now, they’ve come to know that the facility lies with the folks, not the chief or the administration. In order that they modified their tactic to sending trash balloons with an intention of disrupting the day by day lives and security of our residents,” Tae stated.

Tae argued that Kim Jong-un would need former U.S. President Donald Trump to return to the White Home. Trump has boasted about his private ties with Kim, whereas Vice President Kamala Harris declared she received’t “cozy as much as dictators like Kim Jong-un.”

“The one approach to be acknowledged as a nuclear-armed state and eliminate sanctions is for Trump to be re-elected as the subsequent president of the U.S.,” Tae stated.

He predicted that the current upswing in North Korea-Russia relations will expire after the struggle in Ukraine ends.

“North Korea is benefitting from an arms cope with Russia, however I believe that can proceed for 3 to 5 extra years. If Russia now not wants artillery from North Korea after the struggle, it received’t cozy as much as North Korea prefer it does at present,” Tae stated. “That may go away Kim no different alternative however to hunt nearer ties with China once more.”