North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy told colleagues he and his wife were going to take a walk one morning in November 2018. The couple then got into a getaway car waiting near the embassy and never returned.

Their escape was planned by a clandestine group called Free Joseon, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The group, based in Southern California, opposes the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and has organized defections from embassies. Free Joseon also rescued the family of Kim’s exiled half brother after he was assassinated in 2017.

The diplomat in Italy, Jo Song Gil, and his wife are now in hiding in an undisclosed Western country.

To get to Jo, the founder of Free Joseon, Adrian Hong, pretended to be a businessman interested in investing in North Korea. It’s unclear when or where the two met.

After leaving the embassy under the pretense that they were taking a stroll, Jo and his wife were brought to a safe house. Hong arranged for them to seek asylum in a Western country.

Reports later emerged that the couple left behind their 17-year-old daughter, who North Korean officials have said has an undisclosed psychological disorder. The girl had been left at the embassy and was sent back to Pyongyang.

Italian officials publicly expressed concerns about the daughter, given North Korea’s history of punishing family members of suspected political dissidents. North Korea’s embassy told Italy that the defections were prompted by a “family quarrel” between Jo and his wife over how to care for their daughter’s condition. The couple left the embassy after the dispute and intentionally left the daughter behind, North Korea said. The daughter then asked to return to Pyongyang to be with her grandparents.

North Korea observers said it was possible the couple purposely left their daughter behind but said it’s more likely she was left by accident. In one possible scenario, the daughter may have been unwilling to leave, observers said.