North Korea informed Italy last year that the daughter of its acting ambassador had asked to return home after her father left his post in Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Diplomat Jo Song Gil and his wife went missing in November, and a South Korean newspaper has reported that they have applied for asylum in an unspecified Western country.

Thae Yong Ho, a former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain who defected to South Korea in 2016, said on Tuesday that Gil could not take his daughter with him when he escaped. Citing his contacts in North Korea, Thae said she had been immediately whisked back to Pyongyang.