New Malden: Hundreds of North Korean defectors live in this London suburb

The southwest suburb of New Malden has emerged as the North Korea of the West. That’s because hundreds of North Korean defectors live there – more than anywhere outside of South Korea.

New Malden’s community of residents who escaped the isolated nation thousands of miles away was in the news again on Wednesday because of a report that Thae Yong-ho, the deputy to North Korea’s ambassador to Britain, defected with his family to South Korea.

Thae, the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect to the South, was “sick and tired“ of the regime of Kim Jong-un, South Korean government spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters Wednesday.

Nearly 700 North Koreans live legally in the United Kingdom, along with several hundred who are here illegally, said Michael Glendinning, director of the UK-based European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea, a charity that supports North Korean refugees.

Glendinning said most of the North Koreans in Britain live in New Malden, joining at least 20,000 South Koreans who live there. The popularity of the area with Koreans can be traced to the 1970s, when people followed the lead of the South Korean ambassador to Britain in moving to the area. The UK headquarters of the South Korean electronics firm Samsung also was in New Malden until 2005.