North Korea's missing envoy to Italy is now in Seoul

SEOUL -- North Korea's acting ambassador to Italy who went missing in 2018 has been living in South Korea for over a year, South Korean lawmakers said, making him the first diplomat of his rank to defect under current leader Kim Jong Un.

Jo Song Gil served as acting ambassador to Italy from September 2017 until he went missing in Rome in November 2018. He had assumed the post after Italy expelled the former ambassador following the North's sixth nuclear test.