ISLAMABAD: A day after the diplomatic mission of North Korea in Islamabad lodged a protest with the capital police over a “brutal” raid at its embassy, Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed Thursday said the incident occurred due to a “misunderstanding” and he “apologised” for it.
The government has “apologised [to the mission] and informed them [the incident had] happened out of misunderstanding,” Ahmed said in a press conference in Islamabad.
In a letter addressed to the Islamabad police chief, Ahsan Younis, the mission said seven police personnel, including a woman, from the F-10 police station made an “unlawful entry” into its premises on March 7.
“The mission staff reminded them that the premises of the embassy are the sovereign territory of DPRK and asked them to immediately stop this brutal act,” it said. “But the police ignored the request, searched the storerooms at the backyard on the pretext of seizing some items and threatened the staff with guns.”
The police officials damaged the door and broke into a room in the basement, the letter stated, blaming “some external force” for being behind the raid.
“The embassy of the DPRK expresses its serious regrets on this incident and requests the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and security organisations to undertake a thorough investigation against those involved and take measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents.”
However, citing a source at Shalimar police station, a report in Dawn said the raid was carried out after a tipoff that a “huge quantity of liquor” was present at the embassy.
In 2017, senior police and customs officials discovered a large amount of liquor from the embassy, leading them to conclude that some North Korean diplomats were involved in selling alcohol either to make money for themselves or to provide funds for the cash-starved regime in Pyongyang.
The North Korean government is facing increasingly tough United Nations-backed economic sanctions because of its nuclear weapons and missile development programs.
