A North Korean diplomat has been caught trying to smuggle Tk13.5 crore worth of gold into the country, customs officials said.
A joint team of customs and Airport armed police officials challenged Son Young-nam, first secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Dhaka, after he arrived at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport on a Singapore Airlines flight around 11pm on Thursday.
Customs officials impounded 27kg of gold in the form of bars and jewellery seized from the envoy’s handbag.
“We recovered 170 gold bars weighing 19kg and gold ornaments weighing 8kg from his handbag. We have kept the gold, but did not file a case against him as he is a diplomat. We have handed him over to the Foreign Ministry and they will decide what to do with him,” said Kazi Mohammad Zia Uddin, joint commissioner of the airport customs department.
An official who did not wish to be named said the diplomat would not be kept in custody, but might face departmental action from his embassy. According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomats must not be liable to any form of arrest or detention.
