Saturday, 28 Sep 2024

Intruders at North Korea embassy in Spain urged official to defect: court

MADRID (Reuters) – Intruders forced their way into North Korea’s embassy in Madrid last month, identified themselves as a human rights campaign group and tried to persuade an official there to defect, a court which specializes in organized crime said on Tuesday.

Spain’s Interior Ministry had previously said police were investigating an incident at the embassy on Feb. 22, but gave no details except to say that a North Korean citizen had been injured and that no one had filed a complaint.

A Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident, named as Adrian Hong Chang, led the group of 10 intruders and contacted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) days afterwards to pass on information about the raid, the Spanish High Court said in an official document based on an investigation of the incident.

The group stole computers, hard disks and pen drives, it said. It was not clear how the court knew that the man had contacted the FBI.

The FBI did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.

Three of the intruders took an embassy official into the basement and encouraged him to defect from North Korea. They identified themselves as members of a group who campaigned for the “liberation of North Korea”, the document said.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that a dissident organization called Cheollima Civil Defense had carried out the raid.

FAKE GUNS, BALACLAVA MASKS

The Spanish court document gave a detailed account of the intruders’ movements before as well as during the intrusion, including their stay in a hotel and purchases of knives, balaclava masks and fake guns.

The group included a U.S. citizen and South Korean citizens.

There was no immediate comment on the matter from the U.S. State Department or South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Spain’s Interior Ministry declined to comment.

The embassy raid occurred shortly before the Feb. 27-28 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi.

The Mexican, Hong Chang, said he had carried out the raid voluntarily and he did not identify his companions, the court document said. The court identified the U.S. citizen as Sam Ryu.

The group kept embassy staff tied up for several hours and then searched the premises for arms before leaving, at which point they separated into four groups and headed to Portugal.

Hong Chang then flew from Lisbon to New York.

In Spain the High Court has the power to investigate criminal offences, after which formal accusations are launched.

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