![\"North](\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2018\/05\/01\/gettyimages-913437538_sq-89fd1d1cea3ed6ba394ed8f141b5371a3aaf4479-s300-c85.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPARALLELS<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nNorth Korean Defector Hopes To See Loved Ones Again \u2014 But Remains Skeptical<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nSouth Korean lawmaker Kim Min-Ki told reporters he has information about the case, but cannot discuss it, according to<\/a> Reuters. “They left the diplomatic mission and vanished,” Kim said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Italian foreign ministry says it knows nothing of reports that a North Korean diplomat has defected and is seeking asylum, reports NPR Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli. She says Italian media reports that the Rome foreign ministry “denies he’s in protected hiding.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Associated Press reports that North Korea has yet to comment on Jo’s status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korea has long been concerned about the possibility of defections, especially among its elites. The secretive country has insisted in the past that diplomatic defections are South Korean or U.S. plots to undermine its communist government, reports the AP. According to Corriere Della Sera<\/em><\/a>, most North Korean diplomats are required to leave their families at home in order to discourage defections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"For](\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2018\/12\/21\/2844167-kuhn-2-edit_sq-0917f84d7d34e5c3f42c0a160f5498f99abdc2e4-s300-c85.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWORLD<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor A North Korean Defector Turned Journalist, Warming Ties Are Cause For Worry<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\nJo became acting ambassador after Italy expelled the former top diplomat in October 2017 to protest a North Korean nuclear test, Poggioli reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korean defection is nothing new. NPR has previously reported on\u00a0soldiers<\/a>,\u00a0journalists<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0human rights activists<\/a>\u00a0who have escaped the regime. The last high-profile North Korean defector, the No. 2 diplomat in the U.K.,\u00a0escaped to South Korea in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSouth Korea’s spy agency has reported that North Korea’s acting ambassador along with his wife and kids have disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November right before his term was supposed to end. Although South Korea has reported him settling in the west, Rome has neither denied or confirmed him being there. Kim Min-Ki has told reporters he has information on the case but can’t release all of it and has only said that “they left the diplomatic mission and vanished” to Reuters. North Korea has been concerned with defections, meaning deserting a country or favoring in another country, saying that defections are plots from the US or South Korea to undermine the communist government. It is reported that diplomats are required to leave their families to follow through with defections but in this case, he left the whole mission with his family. Since he escaped in early November before his term ended in late November, South Korean services have reported that they have had no contact with him since before he left the compound and would not confirm if his actions in leaving was intended to defect to another country. Diplomats say that the last Italy heard from Jo was that he were to be replaced and South Korea says in newspapers that he is in a safe place along with the rest of his family. Although defections are rare in North Korea and no one will confirm or deny that is what Jo is doing, for someone to follow through with that would be a major embarrassment for Kim Jong-un and are known to be undermines for their government. Pyongyang considers the US and South Korea to be traitors to their country and defectors say there may be severe consequences for family members left behind. The last diplomat to defect has reported that he has worked with Jo and says he knows more about Pyongyang’s nuclear plans and is responsible for delivering luxury goods to N Korea from an Italian company. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy has disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome, according to South Korea’s spy agency. NPR’s Seoul Correspondent Anthony Kuhn reports the South Korean National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers in a closed-door hearing Thursday. Ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November, before his term was set… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
South Korean lawmaker Kim Min-Ki told reporters he has information about the case, but cannot discuss it, according to<\/a> Reuters. “They left the diplomatic mission and vanished,” Kim said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Italian foreign ministry says it knows nothing of reports that a North Korean diplomat has defected and is seeking asylum, reports NPR Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli. She says Italian media reports that the Rome foreign ministry “denies he’s in protected hiding.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Associated Press reports that North Korea has yet to comment on Jo’s status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n North Korea has long been concerned about the possibility of defections, especially among its elites. The secretive country has insisted in the past that diplomatic defections are South Korean or U.S. plots to undermine its communist government, reports the AP. According to Corriere Della Sera<\/em><\/a>, most North Korean diplomats are required to leave their families at home in order to discourage defections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jo became acting ambassador after Italy expelled the former top diplomat in October 2017 to protest a North Korean nuclear test, Poggioli reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n North Korean defection is nothing new. NPR has previously reported on\u00a0soldiers<\/a>,\u00a0journalists<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0human rights activists<\/a>\u00a0who have escaped the regime. The last high-profile North Korean defector, the No. 2 diplomat in the U.K.,\u00a0escaped to South Korea in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Korea’s spy agency has reported that North Korea’s acting ambassador along with his wife and kids have disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November right before his term was supposed to end. Although South Korea has reported him settling in the west, Rome has neither denied or confirmed him being there. Kim Min-Ki has told reporters he has information on the case but can’t release all of it and has only said that “they left the diplomatic mission and vanished” to Reuters. North Korea has been concerned with defections, meaning deserting a country or favoring in another country, saying that defections are plots from the US or South Korea to undermine the communist government. It is reported that diplomats are required to leave their families to follow through with defections but in this case, he left the whole mission with his family. Since he escaped in early November before his term ended in late November, South Korean services have reported that they have had no contact with him since before he left the compound and would not confirm if his actions in leaving was intended to defect to another country. Diplomats say that the last Italy heard from Jo was that he were to be replaced and South Korea says in newspapers that he is in a safe place along with the rest of his family. Although defections are rare in North Korea and no one will confirm or deny that is what Jo is doing, for someone to follow through with that would be a major embarrassment for Kim Jong-un and are known to be undermines for their government. Pyongyang considers the US and South Korea to be traitors to their country and defectors say there may be severe consequences for family members left behind. The last diplomat to defect has reported that he has worked with Jo and says he knows more about Pyongyang’s nuclear plans and is responsible for delivering luxury goods to N Korea from an Italian company. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy has disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome, according to South Korea’s spy agency. NPR’s Seoul Correspondent Anthony Kuhn reports the South Korean National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers in a closed-door hearing Thursday. Ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November, before his term was set… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWORLD<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For A North Korean Defector Turned Journalist, Warming Ties Are Cause For Worry<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n