North Korea: Kim Jong-un's Banker Disappears in Russia with $5m

A top North Korean banker in charge of Kim Jong-un's slush funds is seeking asylum after fleeing Russia with approximately $5m (£3.01m), a South Korea newspaper has reported.

According to the JoongAng Ilbo daily, Yun Tae-Hyong, a senior official at North Korea's Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared in the Russian port city of Nakhodka.

"Currently he is seeking asylum in an (unspecified) foreign country", an unnamed source, quoted by JoongAng, said.

A "well-informed" source told the South Korean outlet that the lucrative sum taken by Yun was stolen from the Daesong Bank.

The South Korean outlet said that North Korea had requested assistance from Russian authorities in their attempts to capture Yun. Pyongyang asked that Russia arrest Yun and repatriate him back to the Pariah state.

The Daesong Bank had sanctions imposed on it by the United States in 2010 and it is suspected of being controlled by the secretive North Korean counterfeiting unit, Office 39.

The unit, located in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, is suspected of holding as much as $5bn (£3.01bn) in funds and having involvement in illegal activities such as the production of illegal substances.

In 2005, $25m of North Korean cash was frozen by the United States at the Banco Delta Asia in Macau. The US Treasury said that it was being used for illegal activities.

North Korean officials have yet to make a statement on Yun's disappearance. Both South Korea's Unification Ministry and South Korea's National Intelligence Agency also said that they had no knowledge of Yun's case.