ROME — North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy has gone into hiding along with his wife, according to a South Korean lawmaker, raising the possibility of a defection of a senior North Korean official.

The news came from South Korea’s spy agency, which briefed lawmakers in Seoul on Thursday on the status of North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil. It said he went into hiding with his wife in November before his posting to Italy ended.

Protesters block traffic and shout slogans reacting to reports of two women of menstruating age entering the Sabarimala temple, one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, on Wednesday. The historic temple had barred women of menstruating age from entering the temple. India's Supreme Court on September 28th lifted the ban, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. (AP Photo/R S Iyer)

A high-profile defection by one of North Korea’s elite would be a huge embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Un as he pursues diplomacy with Seoul and Washington and seeks to portray himself as a geopolitical player.

South Korean lawmaker Kim Min-ki said an official from Seoul’s National Intelligence Service shared the information during a closed-door briefing. Kim did not say whether the spy agency revealed anything about Jo’s current whereabouts or whether he had plans to defect to South Korea.

Kim said the NIS said it has not been contacted by Jo.

According to Kim, the NIS official said Jo and his wife left the official residence in early November, weeks before his term was to end. The NIS earlier said it couldn’t confirm a South Korean media report that Jo seeks asylum in a Western nation.

North Korea has not yet commented on Jo’s status.

North Korea, which touts itself as a socialist paradise, is extremely sensitive about defections, especially among its elite diplomatic corps, and has previously insisted that they are South Korean or U.S. plots to undermine its government.

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