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Jo Song-Gill was believed to have lived in Rome with his wife and children before he disappeared
The North Korean diplomat who went missing in Italy has a defect and lives in South Korea, the legislator says.
The head of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee said Jo Song-gil, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, who went missing in 2018, had been in the south since July 2019.
If confirmed, Mr Joe would be the most senior defector since 1997.
However there is concern for his teenage daughter, who is said to have returned to the North.
Italy’s foreign ministry says she was deported to the north in February 2019 at her own request after her parents went missing.
How if the Song-Gill defect?
He disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in November 2018, before his term as North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy was coming to an end.
Reports at the time said the diplomat – the son and son-in-law of a top North Korean official – was seeking asylum under Western government protection.
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Jo Song-gil was the top envoy to the North Korean embassy in Rome
On Tuesday, an opposition South Korean lawmaker said on Facebook that Mr Jo was in the South with his wife and living under protection. On Thursday, the chairman of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, Zion Hay-Cheol, confirmed that this was the case.
“Former acting ambassador Joe came to South Korea voluntarily in July, 2019,” Mr. Jio said, “he repeatedly expressed a desire to come to South Korea.”
The country’s intelligence agencies have not yet commented.
What about his daughter?
She knows very little about him except as a teenager.
Mr Geo said Mr John wanted to keep his whereabouts secret. “He was worried about his family remaining in North Korea,” Mr Xiao was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.
Another former North Korean diplomat, Tha Theong-ho, a former deputy ambassador to the UK from Pyongyang who led South Korea in 2016 and is now a legislator there, said Defector’s relatives could face retaliation.
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“Where defective diplomatic life determines the level of treatment or punishment given to his relatives remaining in the North.
“If he takes refuge in South Korea, he is defined as a traitor, an apostate,” Mr Thae said, “and no one knows what fines will be imposed on the family members of the traitor.”
Another opposition lawmaker, Cho Tai-yong, who is also a former deputy national security adviser, accused the government of leaking information about Mr Joe and described it as an act that lacked humanitarian ideology.
However, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wai said she was surprised by the news of Mr Joanna’s whereabouts and her concern for her daughter.
North Korean diplomats stationed abroad often have to leave many family members in Pyongyang, which is expected to prevent them from becoming defective.
