North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy has sought asylum and gone into hiding, Seoul lawmakers told reporters after a closed-door meeting with South Korean intelligence officials on Thursday.It would mark the latest high-profile defection by a senior North Korean envoy since the Deputy Ambassador in London abandoned his post in 2016.“Acting Ambassador Jo Song-gil’s term was ending in late November last year and he escaped the diplomatic compound in early November” with his wife, South Korean lawmaker Kim Min-ki told reporters.Mr. Jo, 48, has been acting Ambassador in Rome since October 2017 after Italy expelled the then Ambassador Mun Jong-nam in protest at a North Korean nuclear test 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 Organisation and North Korea suffers from chronic food shortages.
