North Korea has dispatched a squad of assassins after a senior North Korean military officer who disappeared in China in February may have fled to the U.K., press reports said last week.
The Daily Telegraph said the North "has launched an international manhunt for one of its most senior counter-espionage officers, who disappeared in late February and is believed to have defected, possibly to Britain."
It said the official, identified as Kang, is "a colonel in his 50s with the Ministry of State Security and responsible for monitoring dissident and espionage efforts in Russia, China and Southeast Asia."
Kang is reportedly a direct descendant of Kang Pan-sok, regime founder Kim Il-sung's mother.
Citing sources who spoke to the Seoul-based Daily NK news website, the daily said Kang was in charge of "directing intelligence-gathering and ground operations, as well as overseeing the obtaining of data for North Korea's nuclear program by arranging covert exchanges between scientists."
It added that Kang supervised counter-espionage operations from the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, a key base for North Korean hackers operating in China.
But he was caught in corrupt activities and reportedly fled with a "machine capable of printing American dollars," as well as a large amount of foreign currency.
"At least 10 of Pyongyang's agents had been dispatched with orders directly from Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to assassinate him before he can be granted asylum in Europe," the daily said.
According to a source here, immediately after he disappeared, the regime sent seven expert killers, but they came back empty-handed and it sent another three.
The National Intelligence Service here said it is trying to find out whether the report is true.
