North Korean envoy apologizes after diplomat caught with undeclared gold
The North Korean ambassador in Bangladesh issued an apology after one of the embassy's diplomats was caught carrying 27 kilograms (59 pounds) of undeclared gold into the country's main airport in Dhaka, according to officials in Bangladesh.
North Korean officials could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, state media in the largely isolated communist country has not yet reported on the incident.
Kazi Muhammad Ziauddin, a top official in Bangladesh's customs agency, told CNN his officers discovered the gold on the afternoon of March 5th, after the diplomat arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight.
Ziauddin said customs officials had received a confidential tip that a North Korean diplomat would be carrying "illegal items."
"It was very tough. We have to be very careful and sensitive when we deal with a diplomat," Ziauddin said, referring to the Vienna Convention, which affords diplomats certain degrees of consular immunity.