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‘Asylum-seeking’ N. Korea envoy from diplomatic family, says defector
SEOUL, Jan 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A North Korean diplomat in Italy said to be
seeking asylum is from a “prestigious diplomatic family” with both his father
and father-in-law having worked in Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, according to
a senior defector.
Jo Song Gil, the North’s acting ambassador to Rome, went into hiding with
his wife in November and is seeking asylum, according to Seoul’s intelligence
authorities.
It would be the first high-profile defection of a North Korean diplomat
since 2016 when the then deputy ambassador to London, Thae Yong Ho, switched
sides to settle in Seoul.
Thae said Jo is the son of a late former diplomat, while his father-in-law
served as ambassador to Thailand in the 1990s and once handled diplomatic
protocol for the ruling Kim family at the foreign ministry.
“I worked with Jo in the same department at Pyongyang’s foreign ministry
for so long but never imagined that he would seek asylum,” Thae told Seoul’s
Channel A. “The news shocked me.
“I also worked for years with his father-in-law, a well-known, veteran
diplomat in Pyongyang who also served as consul-general in Hong Kong in the
2000s,” Thae added in the interview late Thursday.
Jo’s wife graduated from Pyongyang’s prestigious medical school, with both
families enjoying privileged lives as members of the North’s “wealthy,
prestigious elite”, according to Thae. The couple have one child, he added.
South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo, which broke the news of the defection,
reported that they went into hiding with their children, although South
Korean intelligence did not confirm that during a briefing Thursday with
lawmakers.
Jo, who is in his 40s and known to be fluent in French and Italian as well
as English, came to Rome in May 2015.
He became temporary acting ambassador in October 2017, after Italy
expelled the then ambassador Mun Jong Nam in protest at a nuclear test
Pyongyang staged a month earlier in violation of UN resolutions.
Italy is an important diplomatic mission for Pyongyang, as it handles
relations with the Rome-headquartered UN Food and Agriculture Organization
and North Korea suffers from chronic food shortages.
Jo has not contacted Seoul’s spy agency since he went into hiding, said
Seoul lawmakers briefed by the intelligence authorities, suggesting he was
seeking asylum in a third nation in the West.
The Kim dynasty has ruled the impoverished but nuclear-armed North for
three generations with little tolerance for dissent and a pervasive
personality cult.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1029 hrs