Graphic by Cho Sang-won



By Kang Hyun-kyung

About a year ago, So Jae-pyung, managing director of the North Korean Defectors' Association in Seoul, received a letter from a U.S.-based group asking for So and his organization to join hands to form a North Korean government in exile.

In the soliciting letter, the senders introduced themselves as a group of activists striving to end dictatorship in North Korea and prepare for the Post-Kim Jong-un Era in case contingency occurs there.

So said he ignored their request. "There was no information about who they were, except their email address," he said. "No phone numbers or names of the group or any staff working there were available. They wrote they decided not to disclose their identities because they were performing such a secret mission."

So, a North Korean defector, said he was not convinced by what they said. "I don't understand why they chose to remain anonymous. If they were really doing what they said, they had no good reason to hide their identities," he said. "We didn't respond to them."

The idea to form a North Korean government in exile has emerged among some defectors amid speculation that a war may be unavoidable on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea's intensified provocation pit the country against the rest of the world.

"The latest person who initiated the government-in-exile movement was Ri Jong-ho," said a North Korean defector who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Ri is a former senior-level official of North Korea's secretive Office 39 who defected to South Korea in 2014 with $5 million. He later applied for political asylum in the United States and now lives in Virginia after his asylum was granted.

"I heard he was ambitious and tried to form the North Korean government in exile," the defector said. "He has money to finance his dream... After meeting and having discussion with North Korean defectors in South Korea about the matter, however, I heard he felt he couldn't make his dream come true here."

According to the source, Ri was also frustrated because South Korea was not enthusiastic about the unification of the two Koreas and he realized chances for high-profile defectors like him to play a central role in rebuilding North Korea after a contingency or unification are dim at best.

Many defectors sympathized with the idea of forming the North Korean government in exile in Europe or in the United States. According to them, market economy and human rights need to be the priorities of the government.

North Korea analyst Ahn Chan-il is one of the vocal activists calling for the government in exile. He mentioned the plan to form the North Korean government in exile in the metro Washington, D.C., area in 2010 but his effort has since made no progress.

Ahn said money is one reason. "We need money to finance the agenda. But I found it really difficult to raise funds and rally support from the public," he said. "There was no towering figure who could take the leadership role in the campaign, either, and a lack of an iconic figure to push for the agenda is also one of the hurdles."

The campaign to form the North Korean government in exile shows signs of losing steam at home.

But some activists in Europe and the United States have stepped up their efforts to make it happen.

Kim Ju-il, secretary general of the London-based group International Solidarity for North Korean Defectors, is one of the vocal activists calling for the "legitimate" government outside North Korea. Kim reportedly proposed Kim Pyong-il, the half-brother of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and North Korean ambassador to the Czech Republic, lead the government in exile, once it is formed in Europe. Ambassador Kim reportedly didn't say a word about the offer. Another defector Yoon Tae-yang, who is based in Los Angeles, also ratcheted up efforts to move the initiative forward.

The government-in-exile movement reportedly has infuriated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to some experts. They said the assassination of Kim's half-brother Jong-nam in the Malaysian airport earlier this year might have been related to some defectors' plot to establish a "legitimate" North Korean government outside the country. Some defectors reportedly offered Kim Jong-nam to lead the interim government, an offer he turned down. After his death, his son, Han-sol, is emerging as a possible candidate some defectors hope will lead the movement.

"Government in exile is a very sensitive topic for the current North Korean leadership, so Kim Jong-un would have been upset if he had heard about it," Ahn said. "I think the North Korean government in exile is one of the cards that can put immense pressure on the North Korean leader."

The idea first surfaced in the early 2000s. Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector who arrived in Seoul in 1997 and died in 2010, was the initiator of the movement.

His handwritten letter sent to his fellow North Korean defector Kim Deok-hong, which was obtained by JoongAng Daily newspaper in 2015, shows Hwang unsuccessfully sought political asylum in the United States to establish the North Korean government in exile and he tried to install himself as leader of the interim government.

Regarding the timing of his asylum, Hwang wrote "the sooner the better." He encouraged Kim to discuss the matter directly with the U.S. Embassy in Seoul via mail, rather than telephone, to avoid wiretapping. Hwang's secret letter was written on July 3, 2000, shortly after the first inter-Korean summit was held in June between then-President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Hwang's plan, however, didn't bear fruit because the spy agency reportedly blocked it.

A legitimate government outside North Korea has popped up again in recent years after Kim Jong-un rose to power following his father's death.

Under the younger Kim's leadership, North Korea has stepped up its nuclear ambitions and tested missiles and nuclear bombs many times, despite international pressure.

Military options were mentioned by officials of the United States and South Korea as North Korea's nuclear ambitions showed no limit.

In September, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said he believed the United States had found military options to handle the North Korean nuclear crisis without putting South Korea at grave risk. He declined to elaborate what those options were.

Defense Minister Song Young-moo said on Sept. 4 that a military unit designed to remove the North Korean leadership will be formed in December. He made the remarks during a meeting with the National Assembly Defense Committee members.

Asked if South Korea and the United States have the capabilities to topple the North Korean leader, the minister answered "such a concept" is in the making. Asked again if the operation to remove the North Korean leader will be feasible by the end of next year, Song answered "yes."

Such hardline rhetoric about North Korea paved the way for a radical war scenario on the Korean Peninsula, raising related questions. What will be next once military options are implemented and succeed? Who or what kinds of groups will fill the power vacuum in North Korea?

The debate about a North Korean government-in-exile came against the worsening security environment in East Asia.