North Korean ambassador to Italy in hiding, South Korean MP says

[muriel_volestrangler]

A South Korean MP has confirmed that North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song-gil, has gone into hiding, after reports he had asked for asylum.

Kim Min-ki said Jo’s mandate had been due to end in late November, and he and his wife had fled the North Korean embassy in Rome without notice at the beginning of that month.

South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that Jo had applied for asylum to an unidentified western country.

Italian authorities were “protecting him in a safe place” but “agonising” over what to do next, the newspaper quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/03/north-korean-ambassador-jo-song-gil-seeks-asylum-in-italy

[Eugene]

1. The Latest: Defector: Missing NKorean from prominent family

Source: Associated Press

The Latest: Defector: Missing NKorean from prominent family

Jan 3, 2019 Updated 1 hr ago

ROME (AP) — The Latest on the disappearance of a North Korean diplomat and his wife from Italy (all times local):

1 p.m.

A North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in 2016 says a fellow envoy who reportedly has gone into hiding in Italy came from a family of diplomats, with both his father and father-in-law serving as ambassadors.

Thae Yong Ho, a former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London who defected in 2016, said he worked with acting North Korean Ambassador to Italy Jo Song Gil for more than a decade at North Korea's Foreign Ministry.

Thae said in an interview with South Korean TV on Thursday that the Italian embassy was critical for North Korea because it handled negotiations with the World Food Program over food aid to the North and was a hub for smuggling luxury items to the North Korean elite.

South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers in Seoul on Thursday that Jo went into hiding with his wife in November before his term in Italy ended. His whereabouts are not publicly known now.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.roanoke.com/news/world/wire/the-latest-defector-missing-nkorean-from-prominent-family/article_9fbc1f13-b461-5c77-808c-ab1f6ea379b0.html

[soryang]

2. He's not an ambassador

he's filling in as charge. So he's a lower ranking official.

This is a cloak and dagger affair with many potential intelligence ramifications. Italy is the center of smuggling operations from Europe to North Korea which the North Korean embassy has been involved in the past. There was a very similar affair to this in 2010 when Kim Jong Il's "banker" defected to Italy. Many if not most of the European luxury goods that come to North Korea in spite of sanctions come through Italy, where smuggling is a highly developed business, and there are suspicions that this embassy is involved. These goods are part of the supply chain for the patronage system among North Korean elites.

Everyone is wondering what intelligence, if any, will come from this official. Did Kim's sofa seen on New Year's day come from Italy?

The timing is also perfect from the point of view of the stalled nuclear negotiations. This event was likely intended to have that effect as well.

Tae Yeong Ho has been doing extensive interviews with Channel A News Top Ten in South Korea for a couple of days now. This serves to promote his views on the New Year's speech by Kim Jong Un.

https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2019/01/kims-sofa-new-years-message.html