Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on the 25th that Kim Jong Il’s younger half-brother Kim Pyong Il, the North Korean ambassador to Poland, received a restriction on travelling within Poland.
Piotr Paszkowski, the Spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed in RFA on the 15th, “Since last September, North Korean diplomats, including Kim Pyong Il, North Korean ambassador stationed in Poland, have to receive permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea before going beyond Poland’s capital Warsaw, where the embassy is located.
The Spokesperson said, “The travel restriction which applies to North Korean diplomats is a means to correspond with the permit required for Polish diplomats to travel to regions further than 50km from Pyongyang.”
Kim Jong Il, after being recognized as a successor in 1970, sent half-siblings, including Kim Pyong Il, to foreign residences. Kim Pyong Il, since 1979, has acted as a diplomat and has been travelling abroad after leaving Pyongyang.
A Polish diplomatic contact said, “Polish diplomats stationed in Pyongyang started going to and fro China to acquire daily necessities. The North Korean authorities, unhappy with this, executed a stricter travel regulation on Polish diplomats than on diplomats from other countries in the EU.”
The contact explained, “All diplomats stationed in Pyongyang, in order to travel to regions outside of Pyongyang, have to receive permits from the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but with the exception of military sensitive areas, a majority of the requests by diplomats had been permitted.”
He pointed out, “It is singular that the Polish diplomats, who have been on especially good terms with North Korea more than the other EU diplomats, received such a strict regulation.”
