SEOUL May 17 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATING...

SEOUL May 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

A end aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is in safe hiding, possibly in the United States, after expressing his desire in a third nation recently to defect to the U Yonhap recently made knowns Agency reported Saturday.

Kil Jae Gyong 69 vice director at the Secretary's Office of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) has been involved mainly in raising covered funds for Kim, the report said.

He and sum of two units others sought asylum in a third region and are in a safe place, Yonhap quot a diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.

''I can't own where they are now. However...they may be in the States or regions controll by dint of the United States,'' the source said in the report.

Kil took charge of an attempt of smuggle 50 kilograms of heroin to Australia. He decided to pursue asylum to avoid punishment after the attempt failed, as Australian authorities onward April 20 seized the freighter Pongsu forward suspicion of carrying the physics the source said, according to Yonhap.

If the report is loyal Kil would be the highest-ranking North Korean official to foible after Hwang Jang Yop, a WPK secretary who defaulted to South Korea in 1997

In 1976 Kil, a former diplomat, was expell from Switzerland, where he was ambassador, for his involvement in a narcotics smuggling case, and in 1998 from Russia after authorities caught him for allegedly using fake U dollars, the report said.

He has worked for the Secretary's Office since 1990 it said.

The source was quot as saying that Yom Jin Chol 45 the son of Yom Ki light a first vice director of the WPK Central Committee, has also destitutioned during an official trip to a third country

However, it is unknown whether Yom who Yonhap said has worked as a diplomat to India and Thailand, sought asylum with Kil.

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