A high-level North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in 2016 will join the latter’s main opposition party and run in April parliamentary elections, said party officials.

Thae Yong Ho, former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London and the highest-level diplomat to defect, will run as part of the conservative opposition party Liberty Korea Party in a Seoul constituency on 15 April.

Kim Hyong-o, head of a party committee on candidate selections, told local reporters: “His courage and decision will give hope to North Korean refugees and other South and North Korean people who are wishing for genuine unification.”

If elected, Mr Thae would become the second North Korean defector to win a seat in South Korea’s single-chamber National Assembly.

Former North Korean Cho Myung-Chul was the first and served as a representative for a predecessor of the Liberty Korea Party from 2012 to 2016.

Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits the newly built Pyongyang Orphans' Primary School on 2 February 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a women's company under Unit 5492 of the Korean People's Army in November 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location in July 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a potato at the Samjiyon Potato Factory in North Korea in October 2018 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse through a forest in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 EPA Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a block of frozen fish at a processing facility in North Korea in November 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un celebrates the succeful launch of a strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile in August 2016 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Donald Trump as they meet for the first time at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore in June 2018 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump share a glance as they meet in the Demilitarised Zone in Panmunjon, Korea in June 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects mushrooms at Pyongyang Mushroom Farm AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects a super-large multiple rocket launcher ahead of a test in September 2019 Reuters Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects an apple farm in South Hwanghae Province in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects dental wares at a newly built factory in June 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits Farm No 1116 in September 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un visits a motor factory in November 2017 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un rides a horse during snowfall in Mount Paektu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on 16 October 2019 AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un: Power in pictures Kim Jong-un inspects the Command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in August 2017 AFP/Getty

Mr Thae went to live in South Korea with his family in 2016 and has been a vocal figure in his criticism of his former country’s authoritarian government.

He is the most senior North Korean diplomat to defect, a rarity among senior officials. Prior to him, the highest-level North Korean to seek asylum in the neighbouring country was Hwan Jang-yop, a senior ruling Workers’ Party official.

Hwang once tutored premier Kim Jong-Un’s father, the late Kim Jong Il, and died in 2010.

Mr Thae told reporters his decision to flee the hermit kingdom was because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives there and he was disappointed in Kim.

“When Kim Jong-un first came to power, I was hopeful that he would make reasonable and rational decisions to save North Korea from poverty, but I soon fell into despair watching him purging officials for no proper reasons,” he said during his first foreign news conference in 2017.

North Korea was in turn scathing in its criticism of Mr Thae, calling him “human scum” and accusing him of embezzling government money, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a child.