North Korean student in Paris escapes kidnappers from Pyongyang

A North Korean student with family ties to the regime escaped a kidnapping bid in Paris, where he was studying, and is now in hiding, a French source familiar with the case said yesterday.

The architecture student, identified only as Han, escaped the abduction attempt at a Paris airport, where he was to be put on a plane for the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorised to speak publicly on the sensitive matter.

The failed bid to capture Han occurred in the first week of November, and he had been in hiding since then, the person said. It was not immediately clear if French authorities had played a role in the escape, how many kidnappers were involved, or where they are now.

Han is reportedly the son of an aide to the once powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was considered the country's second-most powerful man before he was executed last December on treason charges.

South Korea's spy agency believed North Korea used a firing squad to execute several people close to the uncle, South Korean lawmaker Shin Kyung-min said in October after attending a closed-door agency briefing.

Han has been attending L'Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture at Belleville. He was presumably among 10 North Korean architecture students who came to France in 2012 in a second wave of an exchange.