The ambassador of North Korea in Italy has been missing for two months and there are reports that he could be under the protection of a Western country. Jo Song-gil, 48 years, a career diplomat who speaks fluent Italian, French and English, presented his diplomatic credentials to the Italian government in May 2015. In October 2017 became ambassador of his country after the expulsion of the Italian authorities of Ambassador Mun Jong-nam from the country. The expulsion occurred in response to North Korea's nuclear test of that year, when Pyongyang announced the detonation of a hydrogen bomb that could be loaded onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Jo is believed to come from a high-ranking family of officials and diplomats with a long history in the Workers' Party of Korea. His father is a retired diplomat and his wife's father, Lee Do-seop, spent many years as a Pyongyang envoy to Hong Kong and Thailand. Jo is believed to have been allowed to take his wife and children with him to Rome, a privilege bestowed only on the most loyal official of the North Korean government. Sources in the Italian government, cited by the British media, said that in October Pyongyang had informed the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Jo would be replaced in December. On Thursday, however, Kim Min-ki, a South Korean lawmaker, told reporters in Seoul that Jo had been missing since November. Kim added that he and a group of other lawmakers had been briefed on the matter by officials from the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's main external intelligence agency.
Meanwhile, the South Korean press said Thursday that Jo and his family "were in a safe place" under the protection of the Italian government. But Italian officials told the BBC that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had "no information about an asylum application filed by Jo" or other members of his family. Citing an anonymous "diplomatic source", JoongAng Ilbo, from Seoul, said that the former ambassador and his wife were negotiating their flight to a western country, along with a political asylum offer.