Former missile builder has North Korea in his sights

Park Choong Kwon was once a member of an elite North Korean unit that developed long-range missiles. Now, as a lawmaker in the South, he is sounding the alarm over Kim Jong Un's weapons.

As a teenager, Park was plucked from his classroom and sent to a school for gifted kids, from where he quickly progressed to the National Defense University.

But he disliked the military discipline and was disillusioned by high-level corruption, eventually deciding to defect to the South, where the 38-year-old was sworn in as a lawmaker last month.

Set up in the 1960s, Park's alma mater is key to the banned weapons programs - it takes the North's top brains and uses them to further Kim's quest for bigger and better missiles, satellites and nuclear warheads.

The university "was created with the main goal of making intercontinental ballistic missiles," said Park, who studied there from 2003 to 2007. Under Kim, the university has been expanded, with new departments for hypersonics, satellites and nuclear.

"The North started publicly rolling out new weapons lineups in 2017, including hypersonic missiles, strategic surface to surface missiles and hydrogen bombs," he said. "But the development of these weapons was already 80 to 90 percent complete when I escaped in 2009."

North Korea's attempt to put a second spy satellite into orbit recently may have ended in a mid-air explosion, but Park says even failure shows its advances.

"They are trying to test a new engine even when they are capable of putting one satellite into orbit," said Park, the fourth defector to become an MP in the South.

The only institution that got to choose students ahead of the university was the hacking unit, he said, adding that it recruited "the top two students in my class." The program dates back to at least the mid-1990s, but has grown to a 6,000-strong cyberwarfare unit, known as Bureau 121.

Park himself majored in chemical engineering, but despite his elite status, he became disillusioned with the system.

Forced to study key texts in which former leader Kim Jong Il tried to refute attacks on Korean-style socialism, Park found "the criticisms made more sense."

Then, in his final year, he discovered that to get a good work placement after graduation, he would need to pay.

"Bribing officials US$3,000 [HK$23,400] would land you a job in Pyongyang," he said, adding that the ruling Rodong party was "corrupt to its core.

"After that I began to see the suffering of the people. So I decided to defect."

In 2009, after meticulously planning, he crossed the Tumen river to China, and then made his way to the South.

Once safely in Seoul, he went for a doctorate at the top Seoul National University, before going to work at Hyundai Steel.

Last year, the ruling People Power Party, which advocates a tough line on the North, recruited him to run and he won office in April legislative elections.

Park plans to work on North Korea issues during his term, but not exclusively.

"North Korea employs a two-track strategy of maintaining power: designating an outside enemy to stir a sense of crisis among its people and showcasing new weapons to give a sense of pride," he said.

But if the public "awaken," this strategy will stop working, he said, meaning that the endless cycle of "provocations" can end.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE