Dissent in the North Korean regime is on the rise in spite of the country’s authoritarian regime, a diplomat who has fled the country on Wednesday said.
“Low-level dissent or criticism of the regime, until recently unthinkable, is becoming more frequent,” the former Assistant Ambassador in London, Thae Yong-Ho, said in the South Korean capital Seoul.
The defected diplomat said that it was more and more common to hear differences of opinion or criticism in the highly secretive state.
“It is difficult to tell the exact timetable of the people’s uprising, but a very small size of resistance in North Korea is taking place,” he said.
Criticism of authorities was also not restricted to the elites in the capital, Pyongyang, but could also be heard among elderly women in shops.
Yong-Ho, who is one of the few high-ranking North Korean officials to have defected, fled the country with his wife and two sons in August.
He has since given several media interviews about his life as a diplomat in North Korea under the rule of leader Kim Jong Un. (dpa/NAN)
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