The rise and fall of Tae Yong Ho illustrates the weaknesses of both Korean societies
Many of the 30,000 North Korean defectors living in the South struggle to get on. They lack the requisite training to be competitive in a first-world economy. The psychological scars most carry from Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian regime make their transition harder. A North Korean accent, which most defectors retain, is not a plus in South Korea’s cut-throat job market. The unemployment rate among the defectors is twice the national average.
He was first posted as a diplomat to Denmark and Sweden, where he begged European governments to send North Korea relief from its self-induced famine. During his spell in London, he once took Mr Kim’s elder brother to a concert by Eric Clapton, a guitarist adored by baby-boomers among the North Korean elite as elsewhere. Such star billing persuaded theSouth Korea’s then ruling conservative party, to welcome Mr Tae’s defection warmly, despite its inveterate hostility towards Northern officialdom.
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