North Korean defector says Kim Jong Un's 'days are numbered'

(Image credit: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

published 26 January 2017

When Thae Yong Ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, defected last summer, he was the most high profile person to do so in two decades. On Wednesday, he spoke with reporters for the first time about life in North Korea and why he feels Kim Jong Un won't be leader much longer.

Thae said he defected because he wanted to free his wife and two sons from the "slavery" of North Korea, and he is "sure that more defections of my colleagues will take place since North Korea is already on the slippery slope." International sanctions on the regime are working and North Koreans are becoming more aware of the outside world, he said, and analysts agree that news reports from South Korea are being smuggled in on flash drives and cellphones. Thae, who believes the only way to "resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula" is to "eliminate the Kim Jong Un regime," went on to predict there will be a "popular uprising" against Kim, and his "days are numbered."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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