The cruel fate that awaits top North Korean officials who fail or disappoint the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, emerges in harsh detail in an exclusive interview with a high-level diplomatic defector in South Korea’s biggest-selling newspaper, Chosun Ilbo.

South Korea will face "devastating consequences" for dropping anti-Pyongyang leaflets over North Korea, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, citing Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister.

Tae Yong-ho, who served as a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, was one of the highest-profile defections ever when he fled to South Korea in 2016. Thousands of North Koreans have defected to the South over the years,

South Korea’s president has appointed a prominent North Korean defector as a vice minister, the highest-level government job for any of the thousands of North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea

Tae Yongho has become the first North Korean defector to hold a ministerial role in South Korea, which experts say will annoy Kim Jong Un.

Tae Yong-ho is a high-profile North Korean defector with deep understanding of North Korean politics and diplomacy. Now, he has been appointed to lead South Korea's presidential advisory council on unification.