South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday that a North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has defected to South Korea. The National Intelligence Service said that media reports on the defection of a North Korean counsellor of political affairs in Cuba are true. But it gave no further details.

South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that the North Korean diplomat, named Ri Il Kyu, fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November last year.