North Korean ambassador to Italy ‘defected to South’

People watch a TV showing an image of Jo Song Gil, the North Korea’s former ambassador to Italy, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Jo who had vanished in Italy in late 2018, lives in South Korea under government protection, a lawmaker said Wednesday. The Korean letters read: “Who is the North Korean Jo Song Gil.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A senior North Korean diplomat who vanished in Italy in late 2018 is living in South Korea under government protection, according to a legislator in Seoul.

If confirmed, Jo Song Gil, the former ambassador to Italy, would be the highest-level North Korean official to defect to its rival since the 1997 arrival of Hwang Jang-yop, a senior ruling Workers’ Party official who once tutored leader Kim Jong Un’s father, late leader Kim Jong Il.