ONE of the chief architects of North Korean communism yesterday became the highest ranking official from Pyongyang ever to seek asylum in South Korea, indicating cracks in the Stalinist hierarchy.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Mr Hwang Jang yop, a close aide to the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong il, sought asylum at Seoul's embassy in Beijing along with his assistant, Mr Kim Dok hong.
Mr Hwang (73) is credited with playing a leading role in shaping the policy of Juche, a brand of fanatic self reliance providing the ideological underpinning for the world's last Stalinist state.
The defections come just four days before the heralded 55th birthday of Mr Kim, son of the late President Kim Il sung, who built a personality cult around the Juche creed.
"Hwang's defection is the strongest ever signal the Stalinist regime's hierarchy is cracking," said Dr Park Hun ok, senior fellow at Seoul's privately funded Institute of North Korean Studies.
"With North Korea's economy in a shambles and the country totally isolated in the international community, only its Juche ideology has been the driving force to keep it alive."
Mr Hwang is one of 11 secretaries on the powerful secretariat of the ruling Workers' Party along with Mr Kim Jong il, who has yet to take over his father's key posts as state president and party general secretary.
He is also a member of the party's central committee and is in charge of its foreign policy, according to Seoul officials who rank him number 24 in the Pyongyang power structure.
Sunday's birthday celebrations bare widely seen as part of an image boosting effort intended to pave the way for Mr Kim Jong il's formal accession to power this year.
"Workers' Party secretary Hwang Jang yop expressed his intention to defect at 10.05 a.m. at the consular section of the embassy, Mr Ryu Kwang sok, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asia Pacific bureau, said.
"Our embassy in China has notified Hwang's defection to the Chinese authorities and we are trying to resolve the matter through diplomatic channels," Mr Ryu said.
The South Korean Foreign Minister, Mr Yoo Chong ha, cancelled his scheduled visit to Singapore to attend a meeting of EU and Southeast Asian (ASEAN) officials to concentrate on diplomatic efforts to bring Mr Hwang to Seoul, he added.
A North Korean representative" in Japan denied Mr Hwang was seeking asylum.
Mr Ryu said Mr Hwang went to the embassy after a two week visit to Japan, where he led an international seminar on Juche. The exact reason for his defection was, being investigated.
Growing numbers of impoverished North Koreans have defected to the south in recent years, including diplomats, an air force pilot and a foreign exchange dealer.
In December a family of 17 became the largest group of North Korean's ever to flee to the south also going through China on a well trodden escape route.
North Korea is on the brink of famine as a result of devastating floods and chronic economic mismanagement.
Analysts in Tokyo said the surprise defection was one more embarrassment, but not necessarily a fatal blow, to the beleaguered communist state.
"The timing is bad, just before Kim Jong-il's 55th birthday on the 16th," said Noriyuki Suzuki of Radiopress, a Japanese news service which monitors North Korea. "It would be a big shock for Kim Jong-il."
"The damage to North Korea is big, maybe more than if any other politburo member had defected," he said. "But that doesn't mean that the North Korean establishment will fall apart."