Son of prominent South Korean defector also moves to North

SEOUL — The son of a former South Korean foreign minister who fled to North Korea in the 1980s also defected to the North last week, according to the North’s state-run news media.

The minister’s son, Choe In-guk, 73, arrived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Saturday to “resettle permanently” in the North, reported a website called Uriminzokkiri, which is run by the North Korean government. The site said that he planned to follow his parents in “dedicating his life to realizing Korean unification.”

Choe is the son of Choe Dok-shin, a former South Korean foreign minister who defected to the North in 1986, becoming the highest-profile South Korean to do so since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North Korean website carried photographs and video footage showing officials welcoming Choe with flowers at Pyongyang’s airport. In his arrival statement, Choe called the North, where both his parents are buried, “my true fatherland.”

South Korea was trying to determine the circumstances of Choe’s travel to the North, Lee Sang-min, spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry, said Monday. All South Korean citizens must receive government approval before traveling to the North. Choe did not have such permission, Lee said.

Although more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to the South since a famine hit the North in the 1990s, only a handful of South Koreans have defected to the North in the past decade.

Choe’s case drew special attention in South Korea because of his family’s history. His father fled to the United States in 1976 with his wife, Ryu Mi-yong, after he grew disgruntled with Park Chung-hee, who was then the military dictator of South Korea. The couple defected to the North in 1986.

North Korea gave the couple a lavish welcome,...