The paper said that in this context “a third country” meant neither North nor South Korea.
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The diplomat is believed to have deserted his post with his family to seek asylum in another country, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.
The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says it now looks as if Mr Thae’s heart may not have been in the task of defending North Korea – one of the poorest and most authoritarian countries in the world.
It states that keeping track of North Korean defectors who had settled down in and around London and helping to find ways to counter the UK’s criticism of North Korea’s human rights violations were among the diplomat’s roles.
The diplomat, whose name has not been disclosed, left the embassy in west London earlier this month for a “third country”, BBC quoted reports in the South Korean media as saying.
“If it is appropriate to give a response, then you might hear about our response”, the official told Reuters.
Those waitresses have finished a prolonged period of investigation and will soon enter into normal society, an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Wednesday.
Current North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, appointed this May, is the former DPRK Ambassador to London.
Mr Thae’s main mission in London had been to spread the message that North Korea and its leadership under Kim Jong-un had been misreported and misunderstood.
A spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office told IBTimes UK that it was not prepared to comment on the allegations.
He also handled consular services.
“I don’t blame reporters”, Thae said during a speech in late 2014.
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“That is the reason why the mass media creates all those shocking, terrifying stories about my country”.
