The rogue diplomat who escaped the North Korean embassy in Ealing has fled to South Korea, officials have confirmed.
Thae Yong Ho has been named as the diplomat who escaped the Gunnersbury Avenue building and defected with his wife and child.
The defection is ironic as it has been confirmed Mr Thae was employed at the embassy to track down other defectors from North Korea that had arrived in Britain.
Officials in South Korea say he has defected to the country and was said to have made the moved in disgust at leader Kim Jong-un's regime.
North Korea, known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is described as a totalitarian dictatorship, with Mr Kim holding supreme power and all communication and media in the country strictly controlled.
Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesperson for South Korea - whose liberal democracy makes it a world apart from its neighbours - said the diplomat is now under government protection.
It has been confirmed that Mr Thae was a deputy ambassador which makes him one of the most high-ranking North Korean diplomats to ever defect.
His job also included the role of easing diplomatic tension from the international community over North Korean violation of human rights, reports suggest.
Mr Thae defected due to discontent with the regime and for the future of his child, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
The spokesman said: "We know that Deputy Ambassador Thae is saying that his distaste for the Kim Jong-un regime and yearning for the Republic of Korea's free democratic system and the future of his child are motives for the defection.
"They are currently under government protection and relevant institutions are going ahead with necessary procedures as usual."
He spoke regularly at far-left events in London, including meetings of a British communist party where he would make impassioned speeches in defence of North Korea.
It has been reported that his son, Thae Kum Hyok, also known as "Kum Thae", was a pupil at Acton High School.
Watch North Korean missile launch in February this year
getwestlondon has approached the Foreign Office and North Korean Embassy for comment.
