Religious Figure Reportedly Defects

A prominent South Korean religious figure who is a member of the main opposition party has defected to North Korea, the Tokyo-based Radio Press news agency quoted North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency as saying. A spokeswoman for the main opposition National Congress for New Politics party said the party had not been able to confirm the report that Oh Ik Jae, the leader until 1995 of the 130-year-old Chondogyo religious group, had arrived in Pyongyang. She stressed that although Oh still holds party membership, he no longer had a formal position in the party.