Elite defectors seek to found ‘N.K. government in exile’ in U.S.

Elite defectors from North Korea who are living overseas and heads of major North Korean defectors’ organizations in South Korea are reportedly planning to found a "North Korean government in exile" in the U.S. in next year. As more ranking officials are defecting North Korea lately amid growing antipathy toward the Kim Jong Un regime among its power elites, the defectors are seeking to form a focal point for a campaign to democratize the North.

“We will proclaim the establishment of a ‘Free and Democratic North Korean Government in Exile’ in Washington, the U.S. early next year. We have completed opinion gathering among more than 10 leaders of North Korean defectors’ organizations,” said the chief of a North Korean defectors’ group, who is deeply involved in the purported establishment of the government in exile. “Originally we planned to proclaim establishment at the end of this year, but we decided to postpone the plan to early next year because we need to make preparations to found a government in exile.”

The person who proposed the establishment of an exiled government is reportedly a defector who is considered the highest-ranking government official to have defected the Stalinist country. The man, who was the top official at Room 39 of the North Korean Workers’ Party that managed Kim Jong Un’s slush funds, defected to the South with his family through a third party country last year. After a U.S. green card this past summer, he moved to Washington with his family and is staying there. Right after entering South Korea, he said, “It is about time that we should establish a government in exile.”

The government in exile has reportedly established the principle that it will introduce a system of freedom and democracy politically, and introduce the policy of reform and market opening modelled after China economically. According to the defectors' group chief, the envisaged government in exile aims to introduce policy of Chinese-style reform and opening, which is somewhat incompatible with a system of freedom and democracy, in order to win support from China.

The reason they are seeking to found a government in exile in the U.S. in lieu of South Korea is that their move could constitute violation of Article 3 under the South Korean Constitution. Article 3 under the Constitution providing "The territory of the Republic of Korea includes the Korean Peninsula and islands that belong to the peninsula" also encompasses North Korea as part of the Korean Peninsula. If the South Korean government recognizes a North Korean government in exile, this could spawn the problem that South Korea effectively comes to regard North Korea as a foreign nation.

“Since North Korea is also a U.N. member state, there is a chance that other countries including the U.S. will not recognize the legal legitimacy of the North Korean government in exile,” said Han Myeong-seop, an international law expert and vice chairman of the national unification research committee under the Korean Bar Association. Attention is focusing on looming outcome of the effort since some critics have raised the possibility that those countries could only allow its activities as a government in exile, rather than admitting the legitimacy of its legal status.

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