SEOUL, South Korea — A senior North Korean diplomat who disappeared from Italy in late 2018 has been dwelling secretly in South Korea since July of final yr, a member of the intelligence committee of the South Korean Parliament and the South’s information media mentioned on Wednesday.
The diplomat, Jo Tune-gil, then 48, was North Korea’s appearing ambassador to Rome when he and his spouse disappeared days earlier than he was scheduled to return dwelling to Pyongyang in November 2018. His whereabouts had since remained a thriller, prompting hypothesis that he had develop into some of the senior diplomats to abandon the totalitarian North.
The revelation about Mr. Jo might additional worsen North-South relations, which have been in a downward spiral for months after the North blew up a collectively run liaison workplace and its troops killed a South Korean authorities official throughout a sea patrol.
Diplomats’ defections are a delicate subject for Pyongyang as a result of they’re usually interpreted within the exterior world as a doable signal of fraying loyalty among the many privileged class. Additionally they elevate the chance that the South Korean authorities might glean a wealth of data, particularly about smuggling and different illicit methods wherein North Korean diplomats earn international foreign money in violation of United Nations sanctions.
Ha Tae-keung, a member of the primary opposition occasion in South Korea, mentioned on Fb on Wednesday that Mr. Jo had arrived within the South 15 months in the past and remained underneath authorities safety. Mr. Ha is a senior member of the intelligence committee of the South’s Nationwide Meeting and infrequently briefs the information media on closed-door parliamentary studies from the nation’s Nationwide Intelligence Service.
Mr. Ha went public together with his revelation hours after JTBC, a South Korean cable channel, reported that Mr. Jo had defected to the South. JTBC cited nameless intelligence sources as confirming Mr. Jo’s defection, and different South Korean information retailers adopted up with comparable tales.
The Nationwide Intelligence Service mentioned on Wednesday that it “won’t affirm” the information reports or Mr. Ha’s assertion. The company has usually used such a inventory phrase when it desires to maintain secret the defection of a outstanding North Korean for worry of penalties in inter-Korean relations or to assist defend the defector’s kinfolk within the North.
If his defection is confirmed, Mr. Jo would be the most senior North Korean authorities official to flee to the South since Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of the North’s ruling Staff’ Get together, defected to Seoul via the South Korean Embassy in Beijing in 1997.
The final senior North Korean diplomat to defect to the South was Thae Yong-ho, a minister within the North Korean Embassy in London, who fled to Seoul in 2016 together with his spouse and two sons.
Over time, some outstanding North Koreans like Mr. Hwang and Mr. Thae have led public lives after their defections to the South. However many others have wished to maintain their defections secret to guard their kinfolk within the North, and the South Korean intelligence authorities have abided by their needs. When its diplomats are posted overseas, North Korea requires them to depart a few of their kids within the North with the intention to discourage defections.
Mr. Jo and his spouse lived with their daughter in Rome. However once they escaped, they might not convey the daughter with them. Italy later said that the daughter had been taken dwelling by the North Korean authorities.
After Mr. Jo disappeared from Italy, Mr. Thae, who defected together with his spouse and all his kids, issued an open letter interesting to the appearing ambassador to defect to South Korea. However after Mr. Jo’s daughter was taken to the North, Mr. Thae mentioned it will be extraordinarily tough for Mr. Jo to settle within the South.
“His daughter would endure a extra extreme retaliatory punishment if he selected to defect to South Korea” fairly than to different international locations, Mr. Thae informed reporters final yr. “He could have to stay silent and preserve his whereabouts secret to guard his daughter.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Thae, now a lawmaker affiliated with the primary opposition occasion in South Korea, issued a press release worrying that the revelation within the information media of Mr. Jo’s whereabouts would additional jeopardize the destiny of Mr. Jo’s daughter within the North.
It stays unclear precisely why Mr. Jo determined to flee North Korea. He was posted in Rome in Might 2015. He served because the North’s appearing ambassador after Italy expelled the ambassador, Mun Jong-nam, in 2017 in protest over the North’s sixth nuclear test.
Mr. Jo’s disappearance was stored secret till a South Korean newspaper reported final yr that he was searching for asylum within the West. South Korean lawmakers later briefed by the Nationwide Intelligence Service confirmed his disappearance. In August of final yr, the spy company informed lawmakers in Seoul that Mr. Jo was secure “someplace” exterior Italy.
North Korea has but to touch upon Mr. Jo’s case.
Greater than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South for the reason that mid-1990s. The North usually calls them “human scum” and “traitors,” or claims that they had been kidnapped by the South Korean spy company.
North Korea diplomats are often kids of elite households. Mr. Jo’s father and father-in-law each had been ambassadors, Mr. Thae mentioned.
