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A senior North Korean diplomat, along with his wife and children, has safely defected to South Korea, making it the highest-level diplomatic defection from North to South Korea in history.
Thae Yong Ho, the deputy ambassador of the North Korean embassy in the UK, is under government protection, Jeong Joo-hee, a spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry, told reporters Wednesday.
Thae defected because "he was tired of Kim Jong Un's regime. He respects the democratic system of South Korea and for the sake of the future of his family, he defected," Jeong told reporters.
The Embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, was not immediately available for comment.
The UK Foreign Office told CNN it will not be commenting on Thae's defection.