North Korean diplomats undergo ideological examination after ambassador’s defection
The North Korean government has recalled diplomats and their families living abroad after it was reported that the acting North Korean ambassador in Italy, Jo Song Gil, had disappeared. The North Korean state is now conducting intense ideological examinations of its diplomats and their families, according to sources in the country’s capital.
“On February 7, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) was ordered to conduct comprehensive ideological examinations of diplomats and their families who returned to North Korea,” said a North Korean source in Pyongyang on March 22. “The examination was ordered to be conducted by the MSS from February 11 and last for a period of three months.”
The diplomats and their families are in complete isolation and receiving intensive ideological education from the MSS and other state agencies, according to the source.
The North Korean authorities ordered the MSS’s Political Department on February 7 to “conduct a comprehensive ideological examination of Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomats and their families who returned home following the incident involving Jo Song Gil, the acting ambassador to Italy.”
The order involved the participation of the MSS Political Department, Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), Propaganda and Agitation Department, and the Overseas Anti-Espionage Department, along with the Central Party’s OGD and Propaganda and Agitation Department in conducting the examination of the diplomats and their families. ......
[Source: Daily NK]
