SEOUL: A top official of a North Korean bank linked to state slush funds is seeking asylum overseas after fleeing with $5 million, a news report in Seoul said Friday.
Yun Tae-Hyong, a senior representative of Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared in the Russian city of Nakhodka last week, the JoongAng Ilbo daily said, quoting a "well-informed" source. He brought with him $5 million stolen from the bank.
But a spokesman of the National Intelligence Agency told AFP he had no information.
"Currently he is seeking asylum in an (unspecified) foreign country", the source quoted by the paper said.
Yun was in charge of raising and managing slush funds for Kim Jong-Un in northeast Russia, the source said.
North Korea urgently requested Russian authorities to arrest Yun and repatriate him, he was quoted as saying.
Korea Daesong Bank was one of two North Korean firms Washington imposed sanctions on in November 2010.
The US Treasury Department at the time said Korea Daesong Bank and Korea Daesong General Trading Corporation were "key components" of a secretive programme to generate cash for the country's communist leadership.
The two companies were described by the Treasury Department as "key nodes" of an illicit financing network orchestrated by North Korea's Office 39, a shady government bureau that is rumoured to manage slush funds and trade in everything from weapons to drugs to counterfeit currency.
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