NK Famous Family

[Anchor Lead]

We begin with new information about the wife of high-ranking North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho, who defected to the South earlier this month. His wife has been reported to be a relative of a famous North Korean figure. It's quite unprecedented for someone from such a famous partisan family to escape from the North.

[Pkg]

Oh Baek-ryong was a loyal anti-Japanese guerrilla campaign colleague of Kim Il-sung. During the Korean War, Oh held a high-ranking post in the North Korean Workers' Party Central Military Commission and headed the 8th Division of the Korean People's Army.

[Soundbite] Korean Central TV(N. Korea) : "As comrade Oh Baek-ryong rose through the ranks and assumed heavier responsibility, he never once forgot that he was Kim Il-sung's warrior."

Sources say that Thae Yong-ho's wife, Oh Hye-son, is a descendant of Oh Baek-ryong. It has been considered nearly unimaginable for members of a high-ranking partisan guerrilla family to defect from the North. It's also unusual that Thae and Oh took both of their sons with them when fleeing North Korea.

[Soundbite] Ko Young-hwan(Inst. for Nat'l Security Strategy) : "Because of widespread corruption, there are many cases in which defectors bring their entire families with them despite Kim Il-sung's mandate that children must be left in the North."

Meanwhile, the latest reports deny the rumor that Thae Yong-ho is the son of North Korean People's Army General Thae Byong-ryol. Thae is currently receiving government protection along with his wife and two sons, and is undergoing an investigation about his escape.