Teenage defector’s disappearance set off alarm bells among North Korean student delegation to Hong Kong math contest
Top South Korean diplomat keeps silent on status of defector
A North Korean student thought to have sought asylum at the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong was staying at a hostel in the city’s storied Chungking Mansions before he went missing, it has emerged.
A diplomatic source, who requested anonymity, said the teenager arrived in the city at the beginning of this month as part of an eight-strong team taking part in a maths competition and checked into a fifth-floor guest house in the Tsim Sha Tsui tower block, which has struggled to shake off its reputation for seediness, drug sales and prostitution.
Unlike most teams from around the world contesting the 57th International Mathematical Olympiad at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Pyongyang delegation did not stay at digs on campus.
All six members of the North Korean team – and the two adults accompanying them – attended the competition’s closing dinner at the Clearwater Bay university on July 15.
At some point after that, according to the source, one of the students vanished and later sought refuge at Seoul’s diplomatic mission in Admiralty.
