North Korea diplomat in Italy missing: South Korean MP

Sayeed Muhammad of DOT
A North Korean diplomat, who was until recently acting ambassador to Italy has gone missing, said to Kim Min-ki, a South Korean lawmaker.
The MP made the comment after a South Korean newspaper reported the diplomat, Jo Song Gil, is seeking asylum in the West, reports Reuters.
The diplomat disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in early November, Min-ki said after being by the National Intelligence Service.
Early yesterday, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Jo, 48, had applied for asylum to an unspecified Western country and was in a “safe place” with his family under the protection of the Italian government.
Min-ki told the press he had some information about the case but could not discuss it.
“They left the diplomatic mission and vanished,” Min-ki said, referring to Jo and his family.
If confirmed, Jo would join a slowly growing list of senior diplomats who have sought to flee the impoverished, oppressive North under the rule of Kim Jong Un.
Thae Yong Ho, the North’s then deputy ambassador to Britain, defected with his family to South Korea in August 2016, becoming the highest-ranking diplomat to do so.
Jo took up the acting envoy post in October 2017 after Italy expelled then-ambassador Mun Jong Nam in protest over North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.