• High-profile North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho, No. 2 at the North's embassy in London, arrives for the National Assembly's intelligence committee in Seoul Friday. He told South Korean lawmakers on Monday that he fled because of disillusionment with what he describes as a 'tyrannical reign of terror' by leader Kim Jong Un, according to one of the lawmakers who attended their private meeting. | KIM HYUN-TAE / YONHAP VIA AP
    High-profile North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho, No. 2 at the North's embassy in London, arrives for the National Assembly's intelligence committee in Seoul Friday. He told South Korean lawmakers on Monday that he fled because of disillusionment with what he describes as a "tyrannical reign of terror" by leader Kim Jong Un, according to one of the lawmakers who attended their private meeting. | KIM HYUN-TAE / YONHAP VIA AP

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SEOUL – A high-profile North Korean defector said Tuesday that top leader Kim Jong Un is determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability by next year and would not be dissuaded by economic incentives, South Korean media reported.

Kim is “racing ahead with nuclear development after setting up a plan to develop it at all costs by the end of 2017,” Thae Yong Ho told a group of South Korean journalists who cover their country’s Unification Ministry, according to Yonhap News Agency.

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