Hwang Jang-yop

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Hwang Jang-yop (born 1922) is a former major politician in North Korea who defected to South Korea in 1997, making him the highest-ranking defector from the isolated state. In the 1950s he was the president of Kim Il-Sung University and deputy chairman of the propaganda arm of the Worker's Party of Korea and was instrumental in the formation of the governing ideology of juche, which emphasizes the self-reliance of the North Korean people. He served three terms in the Supreme People's Assembly and was appointed chief secretary of the Central Committee in 1980. In 1983, however, he was removed from the Assembly and his standing deteriorated; though he had been Kim Jong-Il's teacher at Kim Il-sung University, Kim now spoke to him only to criticize him.

He defected on the way back from a February 1997 trip to Tokyo by walking into the South Korean embassy in Beijing. Since his defection his wife has supposedly committed suicide and his daughter allegedly died by falling off a truck; his other children, a daughter and a son, and his grandchildren are thought to have been sent to labor camps. He has been a harsh critic of North Korea. He has reportedly received hundreds of death threats from North Korea, and has also complained of the South Korean government wanting him to stay quiet so as not to upset the North.

[edit] External links

A collection of North Korean press releases about Hwang Jang-yop. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"", The Joongang Daily, February 12, 2006. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"Pair of North Korean Defectors Find They Are Now Being Muted in Seoul", The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2002. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"The Pyongyang Candidate", Slate.com, October 30, 2003. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"Hwang Jang-yop: an enemy of which state?", The Asia Times, November 30, 2000. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"North Korea From The Inside Out", The Washington Post, June, 1998. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"Hwang Jang-yop Holds Press Conference To Explain Why He Defected from North Korea", Federation of American Scientists, July 21, 1997. Accessed on February 11, 2006.
"Defector says he's fed up with North Korean dictatorship", CNN.com, February 13, 1997. Accessed on February 11, 2006.