The Diplomat in Spain

Kim Hyok Chol will have to leave the country before 30 September./ Photo: AR

The Diplomat. 19/09/2017

Yesterday, the Spanish Government declared Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s Ambassador to Spain, “persona non grata”, and gave him until 30 September to leave the country.

The ambassador’s expulsion was a response to the nuclear tests and the launch of missiles by the regime of Pyongyang, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.

Kim Hyok Chol was called to the Foreign Ministry, where he was reminded of the Spanish protests against North Korea’s attitude and he was informed of the decision to expel him. He was also called at the end of August and he was then informed that one of the three diplomats of the Embassy had to leave Spain.

Some days later, the Foreign Minister, Alfonso Dastis, declared at the Congress of Deputies that he did not rule out the possibility of taking new measures, if the nuclear tests by Kim Jog-un continued. On Friday, after the launch of a new missile that flight over the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the Spanish Government demanded North Korea to rectify its proliferation policy and it warned that the tests would have an impact on bilateral relations.

Kim Hyok Chol is the first North Korean Ambassador to Spain, where that country opened an Embassy at the end of 2013. On 7 September, there were no representatives of the Spanish Foreign Ministry at the reception offered by the North Korean Ambassador in his residence on the occasion of the National Day.