N. Korean diplomat in Italy ‘in hiding’: South’s spy agency

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North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy has gone into hiding, a Seoul lawmaker told reporters after a closed-door meeting with South Korean intelligence officials on Thursday.

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“Acting ambassador Jo Song Gil’s term was ending in late November last year and he escaped the diplomatic compound in early November” with his wife, Kim Min-ki told reporters.

The spy agency briefing to lawmakers came after South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo daily reported that Jo had sought asylum in an unidentified Western country with his family.

“He sought asylum early last month,” the JoongAng quoted a diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.

Italian authorities were “agonising” over what to do, the official was cited as saying, but added that they were “protecting him in a safe place”.

The last senior North Korean diplomat to defect was Thae Yong Ho, who abandoned his post as deputy ambassador in London in 2016.

Jo, 48, has been…



Source: Vanguard Newspaper