South Korea's intelligence agency said Thursday that a North Korean diplomat stationed in Italy who disappeared last year in an apparent bid for asylum has left the country and is under protection.

The National Intelligence Service spoke about Jo Song-gil, the former chargé d'affaires at the North Korean embassy in Rome, during a meeting of the parliament's Intelligence Committee.

Lawmaker Lee Eun-jae, a senior member of the committee representing the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, relayed these remarks by the spy agency.

But the NIS did not give details when asked whether the North Korean diplomat was under South Korea's protection.

Lee said that since the agency remarked that Jo was being protected "somewhere," it seems he’s under the protection of a third country.

[Photo : YONHAP News]