‘Those responsible will pay’: Italy furious as North Korea is suspected of kidnapping daughter of defector Jo Song-gil in Rome

Jo Song-gil, North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy, fled the embassy with his wife in November

Italy’s foreign ministry says Jo’s daughter risks torture after being ‘sent back’ by North Korean officials

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North Korean diplomat Jo Song-gil pictured with Italian senator Valentino Perin on January 3. Photo: AP

Published: 11:22pm, 20 Feb 2019Updated: 11:37am, 21 Feb 2019

Italy warned on Wednesday there would be consequences if there was any truth to reports that the daughter of a missing North Korean diplomat had been abducted from Rome and whisked to Pyongyang.

“If confirmed, this would be of unprecedented gravity,” said Manlio Di Stefano, undersecretary at the Italian foreign ministry.

“Those responsible for this will pay, you can be sure of that,” he wrote on Facebook.

North Korean diplomat Jo Song-gil, who was recently acting ambassador to Italy, went missing in November along with his wife, a South Korean member of parliament said last month, after reports that the envoy had defected.

Thae Yong-ho, a former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain who staged a surprise defection to South Korea in 2016, told a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday that Jo could not take his daughter with him when he escaped the Rome embassy.

“North Korean authorities sent her back home immediately and she’s now under their custody in Pyongyang,” he said, citing his contacts in the North Korean capital.

Thae Yong-ho, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador in London who defected to the South. Photo: Reuters

Di Stefano, a member of the 5-Star Movement in Rome’s governing coalition, said Italy should have protected the unnamed daughter. “She now risks being tortured by one of the worst regimes in the world,” he wrote.