Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday that he has nothing to do with the case of the allegedly forced return to North Korea of the daughter of the Communist State's former envoy to Italy in November following his attempted defection.
"Ask the foreign ministry, it's a question about embassies," League leader Salvini told Radio Anch'io when asked about the daughter of North Korea's former envoy to Rome, Jo Song-gil.
"I knew nothing about it. It's nothing to do with me".
The Italian foreign ministry issued a statement on Wednesday saying the North Korean embassy in Italy on December 5 2018 informed the Italian foreign ministry that former chargé d'affaires Jo Song Gil and his wife had left the embassy on November 10 and that their daughter, having asked to return to her grandparents in her country, returned there on November 14 2018, accompanied by embassy female staff.
Jo started his diplomatic mission to Italy in 2015 and took over the functions of the ambassador after Ambassador Mun Jong-nam was expelled in October 2017 following North Korean nuclear tests.
ANSA sources said that the daughter is a 17-year-old high-school student.
Salvini added that he would not meet a request from members of his coalition alliance partner, the 5-Star Movement (M5S), for him to report to parliament on this case. "If a girl wanted to go back to her grandparents in her own country, took a scheduled flight and was relaxed at the airport, going through the police checks and checking in without saying anything, what has it got to do with the interior minister?" Salvini said.
"What should I report on?".
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