Embassy raiders in contact with FBI
The revolutionary group that carried out a brazen daytime raid of North Korea’s Embassy in Spain last month has shared information about the incident with the FBI, said people familiar with the meeting.
The decision by the group to engage federal authorities thrusts the US intelligence community into a sensitive international investigation led by Spanish authorities, who have not publicly identified any suspects in the mysterious February 22 operation.
It comes as the Trump administration seeks to improve ties with North Korea and negotiate a deal to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme after decades of failed negotiations and mutual distrust.
Any substantive ties between the group and US authorities could complicate the nuclear negotiations given the organisation’s stated mission of overthrowing and replacing North Korea’s Kim dynasty.
The secretive group calls itself Free Joseon but is also known as Cheollima Civil Defence.
Yesterday, the group released a video of one of its members destroying portraits of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il.
The captions of the 34-second clip exclaim ‘‘Down with Kim family rule!’’ and claim it took place on ‘‘our homeland’s soil,’’ suggesting the footage was possibly shot inside the North Korean Embassy in Madrid. Any desecration of the leader’s image is punishable by death in North Korea, given the Kim family’s selfordained god-like status and could invite a harsh response from Pyongyang.
The raid on the embassy generated international headlines last week after Spanish authorities released details about the incident, telling reporters it was carried out by 10 masked assailants who entered the embassy with fake firearms, tied up the staff and interrogated them.
Reports said the assailants stole computers, documents and other items before speeding away in two cars with diplomatic licence plates that were later abandoned on a nearby street.
A spokeswoman with the FBI, when asked about its contacts with the secretive group, said that ‘‘it is our standard practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. However, the FBI enjoys a strong working relationship with our Spanish law enforcement partners that centers on information sharing and regular co-operation around matters of mutual assistance.’’
A spokeswoman for Spain’s embassy in Washington confirmed that Spanish authorities have launched an investigation into the incident but did not offer details.
Free Joseon has not publicly asserted responsibility for the raid and on Sunday urged the international news media to refrain from identifying the names of its members for fear of being targeted by North Korean hit teams.
‘‘The regime does not hesitate to conduct assassinations on foreign soil,’’ the group said in a statement published on its website.
Experts say the documents and computers seized in the raid would likely contain a treasure trove of information valuable to foreign intelligence agencies.
The former North Korean ambassador to Madrid was Kim Hyok Chol, the country’s current pointman for the nuclear negotiations with the United States. Details about Kim’s activities during his time there contained in the stolen materials could prove useful for governments seeking an edge in the negotiations.
It is unclear why the group reached out to US authorities, but its published statements indicate that it is fearful of a punitive response from the North Korean regime.
‘‘The group most likely does not have an unlimited supply of funds or a vast logistical network.
‘‘Approaching the US government with the assets retrieved in Madrid would possibly secure the group some protection,’’ said Sung-Yoon Lee, a North Korea expert at Tufts University.
The FBI does not have jurisdiction over foreign intelligence gathering, but it regularly passes information along to the CIA if it is relevant to the organisation.
The CIA declined to comment. Spanish news outlets suggested that the CIA was involved in the raid, however people familiar with the operation said US intelligence agencies did not play a role.
Lee said the group’s decision to release the video of a person destroying the portraits of the leadership is likely to ‘‘debunk the myth of inviolability of the Kim Il Sung cult and routinise the belief that the North Korean people can, too, stand up to Kim Jong Un.’’
Free Joseon first drew wide attention in 2017 after it reportedly evacuated the nephew of Kim Jong Un from Macau when potential threats to his life surfaced.
The nephew was the son of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader’s exiled half brother who was assassinated in a nervegas attack in a Malaysian airport that same year. Kim Jong Nam is widely believed to have been killed because he was viewed as a threat to Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.
Members of the Free Joseon group transported the nephew out of Macau with the help of the governments of the United States, China and the Netherlands, which provided travel and visa assistance, the group told the in 2017.
In March, the group published a manifesto calling on North Koreans inside and outside the country to resist the Kim dynasty. Nearly four decades after voters unceremoniously rejected then-President Jimmy Carter’s bid for a second term, the 39th president has reached a milestone that electoral math cannot dispute: He is now the longest-living chief executive in American history.
Friday in the US is the 172nd day beyond Carter’s 94th birthday, exceeding by one day the lifespan of former President George H W Bush, who died on November 30 at the age of 94 years, 171 days. Both men were born in 1924: Bush on June 12, Carter on October 1.
It’s yet another post-presidency distinction for Carter, whose legacy since leaving office has long overshadowed both his rocky White House tenure and the remarkable political rise that led him from his family peanut farm and a state Senate seat to the governor’s mansion and his unlikely presidential victory in 1976.
The achievement also defies medical odds, coming more than three years after Carter announced he had melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. He underwent treatment and received a clean bill of health.
‘‘There are no special celebrations planned,’’ said Deanna Congileo, spokeswoman for the former president and The