Two senior North Korean officials, including an army colonel specialising in espionage against the South, defected to South Korea last year, the Seoul government says.
News of the defections followed Friday's announcement by Seoul that 13 workers at a restaurant run by the North in an undisclosed third country had defected as a group, arriving in the South a day earlier.
On Monday, the South's Unification and Defence Ministries said a North Korean army colonel defected last year and had been granted political asylum.
He had worked in the secretive General Reconnaissance Bureau, which is focused on espionage activities against the south.
The Unification Ministry, which handles North Korea issues, also said that a senior diplomat who was posted in an African country had defected to the South last year with his family.
The disclosures confirmed earlier reports in the South Korean media. The South Korean government's public acknowledgment of defections is unusual.
Earlier on Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North Korean colonel specialised in anti-South espionage operations before defecting and had divulged the nature of his work to South Korean authorities while in the North.
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