Top N Korean defector fled slavery

Top-ranking North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-Ho, whose recent defection gifted a major propaganda coup to the South, vowed yesterday to devote himself to exposing the cruelties of the Pyongyang regime and encouraging others to escape.

South Korean lawmakers who met with Thae in Seoul told the Yonhap news agency that he had fleshed out his reasons for defecting and testified to the precarious lives of senior officials in the North and the "capitalist" survival techniques of ordinary North Koreans.

Thae was living in London as the deputy ambassador to Britain when he escaped to the South with his wife and two sons in August -- becoming one of the highest-ranking diplomats ever to defect.

The North's state media denounced him as "human scum", and accused him of embezzling state funds and spying for South Korea.