Editing Defection (section)

===Politics===
* [[Guy Burgess]], British diplomat and member of the [[Cambridge Five]], defected to the Soviet Union in 1951.
* [[Donald Maclean (spy)|Donald Maclean]], British diplomat and member of the Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1951.
* [[Kim Philby]], British intelligence officer and member of the Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.
* [[Viktor Suvorov]] (born 1947), Russian writer and former Soviet military intelligence officer who defected to the United Kingdom in 1978.
* [[Thae Yong-ho]], a former [[North Korea]]n diplomat for Britain. At an unknown date Thae defected from North Korea for his family, because he "didn't want his children, who were used to life of freedom, to suffer life of oppression". Being one of North Korea's elite, for the nation he was the highest profile defection since No Kum-sok (above) in 1953. He was elected to the [[South Korea]]n [[National Assembly (South Korea)|National Assembly]] in [[2020 South Korean legislative election|2020]] for the [[United Future Party]], representing the Gangnam A district of [[Seoul]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
* [[Vladimir Petrov (diplomat)|Vladimir Petrov]] - Soviet diplomat who defected to Australia in 1954.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/mrs-petrovs-death-brings-bizarre-affair-to-end-20020727-gdufod.html|title=Mrs Petrov's death brings bizarre affair to end|date=27 July 2002|access-date=20 March 2022|archive-date=29 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100050/https://www.theage.com.au/national/mrs-petrovs-death-brings-bizarre-affair-to-end-20020727-gdufod.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/27/guardianobituaries.russia|title = Obituary: Evdokia Petrov|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 27 July 2002|access-date = 20 March 2022|archive-date = 29 November 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181129054422/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/27/guardianobituaries.russia|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.smh.com.au/national/spies-who-loved-us-20020727-gdfhnd.html|title = Spies who loved us|date = 27 July 2002|access-date = 20 March 2022|archive-date = 24 August 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180824183446/https://www.smh.com.au/national/spies-who-loved-us-20020727-gdfhnd.html|url-status = live}}</ref>