UPDATE: Chosun Ilbo’s Thursday edition claimed that the Mr. A in the article below has already defected to Seoul not Tokyo.

Two high-ranking North Korean officials stationed in Beijing sought asylum at the Japanese embassy at the end of September, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported on Wednesday.

One of the defected officials was reportedly in charge of purchasing and supplying medicine and medical devices for some of Pyongyang’s most influential people, including Kim Jong Un, the report alleges.

“The high-ranking official Mr. A (alias) from the North Korea’s Ministry of Public Health, who had been operating as a North