North Korean bank official 'linked to state slush funds seeks asylum and flees with US$5 million'
Yun Tae-Hyong, of Korea Daesong Bank, who vanished last week, was raising and managing illicit funds for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Russia, reports South Korean newspaper.
A top North Korean banker who managed leader Kim Jong-un's private funds is seeking asylum overseas after fleeing with US$5 million, a news report in Seoul said yesterday.
Yun Tae-hyong, a senior representative of Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared in the Russian city of Nakhodka last week, the daily said, quoting a "well-informed" source. He brought with him the cash stolen from the bank.
"Currently he is seeking asylum in an [unspecified] foreign country", the source quoted by the paper said.
Yun was in charge of raising and managing slush funds for Kim in northeastern Russia, the source said. North Korea urgently requested Russian authorities arrest Yun and repatriate him, he was quoted as saying.
Korea Daesong Bank was one of two North Korean firms Washington imposed sanctions on in November 2010.
The US Treasury Department at the time said Korea Daesong Bank and Korea Daesong General Trading Corporation were "key components" of an illicit financing network orchestrated by North Korea's Office 39, a bureau rumoured to trade in weapons, drugs and counterfeit currency.
