Missing envoy: asylum report

A NORTH Korean diplomat who was until recently acting ambassador to Italy has gone missing, a South Korean member of parliament said on Thursday after a South Korean newspaper reported he was seeking asylum in the West.

The diplomat, 48-year-old Jo Song Gil, disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in November, according to Kim Min-ki, a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

A diplomatic source said the Italian ministry had no record of Jo seeking asylum in Italy. | BANGKOK: Rain, wind and surging seawater buffeted coastal villages and world-famous tourist resorts yesterday, as tropical storm Pabuk made landfall on southern Thailand’s east coast.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 70km/h, hit the shore of Nakhon Si Thammarat province and was roaring westward, said the Thai Meteorological Department.

Thailand cancelled flights to popular tourist islands, battened down beachside resorts and evacuated offshore oil rigs as the first tropical storm in nearly 30 years arrived.

Bangkok Airways cancelled all flights to and from popular holiday destination Koh Samui, potentially stranding tourists. Ferry services to and from the island were suspended.

Other popular island destinations such as Samui, Phuket and Krabi were also affected.

Several hotel operators said they were prepared. “We have prepared sand bunkers and we have barricaded glass windows,” said a spokesperson for the Lub d Koh Samui resort.

Petroleum company PTT Exploration and Production said it had suspended operations at Bongkot and Erawan, two of the country’s biggest gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand. |