The defection to the US of the North Korean ambassador at Cairo, Mr Jang Seung-il (48), is considered a major coup for the CIA, still poking in the ashes of the Cold War. However, North Korea cancelled a third round of ballistic missile talks with the US which were to start yesterday at the UN, and recalled its delegation. Last week the US imposed new economic sanctions on North Korea for "missile technology proliferation activities".
Mr Chang is the highest-ranking North Korea diplomat to seek political asylum in the West. His brother, Mr Jang Seung-ho, a trade attache at the North Korean Mission in France, also defected with his wife, an actress. Asylum for his brother and wife may have been negotiated by Ambassador Jang - who allegedly was smuggled out of Egypt without the knowledge of the Egyptian Government - with the CIA.
This might raise problems between Egypt and the US. Cairo, however, is in no position to jeopardise its US aid, the second highest in the US budget after Israel.
A US official who talked to the New York Times about the defections suggested that Ambassador Jang "may have feared punishment when he returned to Pyongyang, perhaps because he had failed to persuade Egypt to provide more emergency food aid".
Mr Hwang Jang Yop, a senior North Korean official who defected to South Korea in April after seeking asylum in Beijing in February, is the highest ranked North Korean to abandon his government.
Other Middle East states allegedly involved in missile deals with North Korea include Egypt and Syria. But the country most cited in these missile reports is Iran. The senior US official quoted in the New York Times commented: "Egypt and North Korea have an arms sale relationship that makes this defection important to the United States." He did not say why, but added: "He [Mr Jang ] will have had access to important information on arms sales throughout the Middle East."