North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, went into hiding with his wife in November, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in Seoul on Thursday. A high-profile defection by one of North Korea’s elite would be a huge embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Un as he pursues diplomacy with Seoul and Washington and seeks to portray himself as a player in international geopolitics.
South Korean lawmaker Kim Min-ki said an official from Seoul’s National Intelligence Service shared the information during a closed-door briefing. Kim did not say whether the spy agency revealed any information about Jo’s current whereabouts or whether the diplomat had plans to defect to South Korea. Kim said the NIS said it has not been contacted by Jo.
Kim said the NIS official said that Jo and his wife left the official residence in early November, weeks before his term was to end in late November. Kim said he couldn’t confirm whether the NIS official revealed whether Jo and his wife were accompanied by any children. The NIS earlier said it couldn’t confirm a South Korean media report that Jo was under the protection of the Italian government as he seeks asylum in a Western nation.
North Korea has not yet commented on Jo’s status.
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An official with the Italian Foreign Ministry said the North Korean hadn’t requested asylum from Italy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with standard practice, said Jo no longer held diplomatic status in Italy. That presumably refers to his government’s ending his diplomatic assignment to Italy and his being recalled.
North Korea, which touts itself in its propaganda as a socialist paradise, is extremely sensitive about defections, especially among its elite diplomatic corps, and has previously insisted that they are South Korean or U.S. plots to undermine its government.
North Korea may publicly ignore Jo’s possible defection or hold back harsh criticism to avoid highlighting the vulnerability of its government as it pursues diplomacy with Washington and Seoul, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.
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The last senior North Korean diplomat known to have defected is Thae Yong Ho, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, who fled to South Korea in 2016.
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