Advertisement
North Korean ex-envoy on Kim Jong-un’s ‘decapitation’ fears after Maduro’s capture
Kim will ‘overhaul the entire system regarding his security and countermeasures in case of an attack against him’, Lee Il-kyu says
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The dramatic US operation that overthrew Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro this month may have left North Korean leader Kim Jong-un feeling he was also vulnerable to “decapitation”, according to a former Pyongyang envoy to Havana.
In a wide-ranging interview, Lee Il-kyu, who served as Pyongyang’s political counsellor in Cuba from 2019 until 2023, said Washington’s lightning extraction in Caracas was a worst-case scenario for his former boss.
“Kim must have felt that a so-called decapitation operation is actually possible,” Lee, who now works for a state-backed think tank in Seoul, said.
Advertisement
North Korea’s leadership has long accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power and said its nuclear and missile programmes are needed as a deterrent against alleged regime change efforts by Washington.
But the ex-diplomat, who defected to the South in November 2023, said that Maduro’s capture will now spark panic among North Korea’s security-obsessed leadership.
Advertisement
Kim will “overhaul the entire system regarding his security and countermeasures in case of an attack against him”, he said.
From his perch in Havana, a major backer of Maduro’s socialist government in Caracas, Lee was charged with promoting the interests of the nuclear-armed state in Latin America.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x