A North Korean who fled the evil regime for New Malden was stabbed to death by his wife in a frenzied attack after he got his lover pregnant, a court heard.

Hyojung Lim, 44, murdered her 40-year-old husband Jaesock Lee when he told her he was leaving her for his pregnant lover, a jury was told.

A post mortem revealed Mr Lee had died from stab wounds to the throat and upper chest and the broken off tip of the knife was found embedded in his spine.

The couple had fled the totalitarian state in 2007, leaving behind their 12-year-old daughter Kim Yang who they have never seen since and believe died three years ago.

A flatmate heard the couple arguing at the their home in New Malden High Street.

New Malden is home to Europe's most thriving Korean expatriate population.

When she entered the couple's blood splattered bedroom Lim told her she had "revenged him for the last 13 years" and for the death of their daughter, Wood Green Crown Court was told on Wednesday.

Lim also left a note which prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said was written immediately after the stabbing "in which she said she had taken revenge on her husband for the wrongs he had done to her."

Reading the note to the court, he said: "I took revenge on him. I cannot live like this anymore. I heard he had lots of debt.

"There should be no more people to be suffered by him.

"It was my sin that I chose a man who was supposed to be shot dead in North Korea.

"My child Kim Yang, I am coming."

Shortly after her arrest Lim told a doctor she had three children, the first stillborn in 1994 then a year later she had twin daughters.

One died a month after birth, but Kim Yang survived.

Lim denies murder, claiming she acted in self defence.

Mr Glasgow QC told the jury that flatmate Neahwa Kim found Lim covered in blood on the floorwhile her husband's body lay under a duvet.

Mr Glasgow said: "The defendant said 'I have revenged him for the last 13 years.

'I have revenged him for Kim Yang.'

"Neahwa Kim understood this to be a reference to the daughter who had been left behind in North Korea and had died a few years later."

The jury heard Mr Lee had been having an affair with a Korean woman Yuni Choi.

Mr Glasgow said: "It was discovered that Jaesock Lee had been having an affair and that his girlfriend was now pregnant.

"The defendant, you may think understandably, had been growing increasing angry with her husband."

He said that a few days earlier Lim sent several texts to her husband one of which stated: "Go to her, keep f***ing until the dick gets torn off."

He said on the night of the murder Lim had overheard a phone conversation between her husband and Ms Choi in which he said "he was going to end things with his wife."

After her arrest Lim refused to answer questions from detectives, but in a written statement said Mr Lee had abused her throughout their relationship.

The statement read: "He once broke my ribs for no reason.

"I discovered he was heavily involved in people trafficking and he had been to prison for such offences.

"In 2007 we said we would go to China and then on to the UK.

"I thought it was only going to be the two of us travelling, but then another woman came with us.

"I discovered he was trafficking her."

In the statement Lim claimed Mr Lee handed the woman over to a Chinese policeman who then raped her.

Describing the night of the stabbing, Lim claimed she had simply been defending herself after he threatened to kill her.

The statement read: "I continued to wave the knife around to fend him off.

"I did not wish to kill Mr Lee, but I had no choice, it was him or me."

Mr Glasgow added: "The defendant wielded he knife with such force and violence to kill her husband that the tip of the blade broke off on his spinal chord.

"Her explanation was that she was attacked by her husband and that she was defending herself.

"What we suggest is that the stabbing was not a response to an immediate threat, but a response to wrongs she believed she had suffered at his hands.

"The defendant accepts that she has stabbed her husband, but that she denies she is guilty of murder because she says she was the one who was attacked and what she did was to defend herself."