A South Korean diplomat accused of indecent assault of a senior official at the Wellington embassy in 2017 will not be extradited from his home country, police have announced.
A complaint about former Deputy Ambassador to New Zealand Hongkon Kim was made in July 2019, and he was arrested in February this year following an investigation.
Three charges of indecent assault have since been laid against him.
However Wellington's District Investigations Manager, Detective Inspector John Van Den Heuvel, says police won't attempt to bring him to New Zealand to face the charges.
"New Zealand Police has concluded that, while the standard of proof to prosecute the alleged offender and to seek a warrant of arrest had been met, the higher threshold required to initiate extradition proceedings has not been met," he said.
Det Insp Van Den Heuvel says police's decision not to seek extradition has been communicated to the complainant, who was "disappointed" with the outcome.
In July, Newshub Nation revealed South Korea had blocked a police investigation into Kim - stopping police examining the building; refusing to share its CCTV footage; and preventing staff being questioned, claiming diplomatic immunity.
Korean opposition parties call it a cover-up, and the diplomatic fallout became so great it was raised in August at the highest level on a call between the South Korean President Moon Jae-in and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
"I did raise with the Korean President when we spoke, our disappointment that diplomatic immunity was not waived during the course of those investigations," Ardern told Newshub.
"I certainly felt as though the President heard those concerns."
Kim was until recently representing his country as Consul-General to the Philippines, but has since returned to South Korea.
