North Korean state media confirmed on the weekend that it formally reassigned its recalled ambassador to the U.K. “to another duty,” cementing what could have been a temporary diplomatic protest into something that appears more permanent.

The reassignment, which follows the U.K’s sanctioning of North Korea’s Songdowon International Children’s Camp, is likely to hinder progress on London’s reopening of a U.K. Embassy in Pyongyang, closed after staff evacuated the facility in May 2020 amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The worsening state of bilateral relations effectively means the