A North Korean nuclear scientist who fled the country while taking time off from work to deal with “anxiety over his research projects” has killed himself inside a prison cell after being recaptured in China and sent back over the border, according to a report.
The defector worked as a researcher in the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang and was part of a group of North Koreans caught in Shenyang in early November, a source inside the reclusive country told Radio Free Asia. They were sent back from the northern Chinese city to North Korea on Nov. 17 and the scientist reportedly died by taking poison while awaiting interrogation.