SEOUL, South Korea — The son of a former South Korean foreign minister who fled to North Korea in the 1980s also defected to the North last week, according to the North’s state-run news media.

The minister’s son, Choe In-guk, 73, arrived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Saturday to “resettle permanently” in the North, a website called Uriminzokkiri, which is run by the North Korean government, said on Sunday. The website said that he planned to follow his parents in “dedicating his life to realizing Korean unification.”

Mr. Choe is the son of Choe Dok-shin, a former South Korean foreign minister who defected to the North in 1986, becoming the highest-profile South Korean to do so since the 1950-53 Korean War. Choe Dok-shin was also a former military general and had served as South Korea’s ambassador to West Germany.

The North Korean website carried photographs and video footage showing officials welcoming Mr. Choe with flowers at Pyongyang’s international airport. In his arrival statement, Mr. Choe called the North, where both his parents are buried, “my true fatherland.”