A senior official of North Korea’s mission in Beijing is said to have left his residence with his family and took refuge in South Korea late last month.
 
The North Korean is reported to be a director-level official who was charged with taking care of leader Kim Jong-un’s health. He and his family are said to be undergoing questioning by related agencies in South Korea.
 
A source familiar with North Korea affairs said that the official served in a department of the North’s Public Health Ministry that handles affairs related to key institutions, including the Bonghwa Clinic in Pyongyang which is exclusively used by Kim and his family. The department is regarded to have considerable influence within the ministry as it handles classified data on the young leader's health.
 
The official’s defection comes after the North tightened monitoring following the defection in July of Thae Yong-ho, a minister at Pyongyang's mission in London.
 
The latest series of defections by senior North Korean officials has raised the possibility that the regime’s internal solidarity has begun to weaken among the North’s elite.
 
A Foreign Ministry official in Seoul forecast that more defections by the North’s elite could take place due to impacts from additional international sanctions slapped against the North.