Fame for North Korean defectors brings money, suspicion

Human rights activist and North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk poses for photographs after an interview with Reuters in central Seoul in this February 16, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files

SEOUL (Reuters) - Kang Myung-do, then son-in-law of North Korea's premier, made a spectacular claim about Pyongyang's nuclear capability when he defected to the South over two decades ago, asserting the secretive country had built five atomic bombs.

His testimony at a news conference in 1994 came 12 years before North Korea conducted its first nuclear test and, like many allegations about the country, was never proven. Asked last week about its veracity, Kang told Reuters he was sharing the information he had at the time.