Customs officers in Bangladesh caught a North Korean diplomat trying to smuggle an estimated $1.4m (£922,000) worth of gold into the country, a senior official has said.

The diplomat was released but Bangladesh is seeking to press charges. The gold weighed about 27kg in total.

“We recovered the gold both in the form of bar and ornaments from Son Young-nam, the first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka,” said Moinul Khan, director general of the custom intelligence department.



He said the diplomat was stopped while passing through the green channel at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal international airport after a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore.



A case has been filed with the customs department. “We have also initiated the process to file a criminal case against him,” Moinul added. He said the North Korean government would be informed soon and further action would be taken through government channels.

Moinul said that in recent months the smuggling of gold had increased, mainly from Dubai, but this was the first known instance of a diplomat carrying gold.