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But the city’s importance to Pyongyang could increase if US President-elect Joe Biden persuades Kim Jong Un to consider withdrawing his weapons program – one that houses the United Nations nuclear security agency could potentially play an observer role.
An interview with a senior Western intelligence officer familiar with North Korea’s spy ring paints a striking picture of the country’s operations in Europe, including the deployment of up to ten agents from the Ministry of National Security in the Austrian capital. According to the official, at least one agent works in Vienna on a regular basis.
In addition to gathering basic information, the most important mission of North Korean agents is to monitor the regime’s own embassies and diplomats. They also monitor illegal procurement operations, search for missing persons, and repatriate summoned personnel.
According to the intelligence officer, who asked to remain anonymous, Austria is at the center of this activity. Although Kim Jong Uno’s family trips and studies in Switzerland have long been the subject of debate, Kim’s connections with German-speaking Swiss neighbors are less well known.
North Korea’s often desperate and clumsy operations in Austria and elsewhere in Europe are becoming increasingly necessary for Kim Jong Un as his country battles sanctions. North Korea’s economy is facing its biggest contraction in more than two decades this year, Fitch Solutions reports, in part due to Kim Jong Un’s decision to close its borders during a coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally, arable land has been devastated by natural disasters this year, including floods.
North Korea’s trade with China, arguably its biggest economic partner, contracted 73 percent in September and is expected to decline 80 percent for the entire year, the Korea International Trade Association said in late November.
Kim Jong Un issued a rare warning to the economy in August, telling his party leaders that the country was “facing unexpected and unavoidable challenges.”
For many years, Koreans have been buying goods in Austria that the regime cannot legally import, including Glock pistols and an elevator that Kim Jong Un, along with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, will use in 2018. hitting the slopes while visiting a North Korean ski resort.
A spokesman for the Austrian Interior Ministry said the agency could not comment on specific cases or operations for legal reasons. The ministry, which oversees the internal intelligence agency, is investigating all crimes related to Austria, its spokesman stressed.
A spokeswoman for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz forwarded the request for comment to the Ministry.
The two people, who answered phone calls at the North Korean embassy in Vienna, were unable to comment, and the email addressed to the embassy went unanswered.
The country’s annual intelligence report acknowledges that “intelligence agents operate both in Austria and against Austrian interests” due to local business networks and easy access to the European Union and international organizations. These connections are one of the reasons Vienna appears so frequently in Le Carré’s spy novels, such as The Perfect Spy.
His role could become even more meaningful if Biden manages to convince Kim Jong Un to reduce his nuclear arsenal more successfully than current President Donald Trump – that’s likely a prerequisite for a face-to-face meeting.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will almost certainly play an important role in ensuring that North Korea fulfills its obligations to liquidate or at least reveal the location of weapons storage facilities.
Close and active cooperation will be necessary to carry out comprehensive work on North Korea’s nuclear weapons freeze. Laboratories, reactors and fissile material production plants, as well as monitoring equipment, will have to be closed in one of the most classified and paranoid countries in the world.
This would mean not only the admission of IAEA teams to North Korea, but also regular visits by North Korean officials to Vienna.
“As soon as a political agreement is reached between the parties involved, the agency will be ready to return to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea immediately,” the IAEA said in a September report, using North Korea’s official name.
European cities with North Korean missions, such as Geneva and Stockholm, often hold meetings between representatives of the United States and North Korea who have never had official relations. In March, Kim Jong Un appointed Choe Kang Il, one of his leading experts on American affairs, as his new ambassador to Vienna. Choe Kang Il replaced Kim Jw Un’s uncle Kim Kwang Sop in office.
Other high-ranking North Korean officials, including members of the top secret personal secretariat, which has direct ties to the Kim family, came to Austria to buy and engage in illicit transactions, an intelligence official interviewed by Bloomberg said.
In one case, Austrian agents had the opportunity to search a rental apartment because North Korean officials forgot to hide it under diplomatic cover.
According to the UN, North Korea uses its embassies and overseas missions to engage in “illegal activities for illicit profit,” including the trade in luxury items banned by sanctions and the acquisition of banned equipment necessary for the US’s nuclear program. country. North Korea makes billions of dollars a year through drug trafficking, arms sales, currency counterfeiting and the exploitation of guest workers, according to the North Korea International Human Rights Network.
For underpaid North Korean diplomats in Europe, smuggling is not just a service to the regime, but also a way to earn a living.
Tae Yong-ho – Former North Korean deputy ambassador to the UK, 2016 departed for South Korea, said in a telephone interview that regime envoys “must earn money” and receive harsh criticism for not meeting quotas.
“The pressure is enormous,” said Tae Yong-ho, who was elected to the South Korean parliament in April.
Austria is home to a hundred North Korean citizens and historically is home to one of the regime’s largest embassies in Europe.
Not only agents, but also several bombers involved in the downing of Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987 passed through its doors.
Kwon Yong Rock, 2009 Described on the North Korea Leadership Watch website as a former central executive in the country’s financial management in Vienna in 2012. The UN Security Council report identified him as one of the creators of a plan for export of illicit goods, including Mercedes Benz E-Class E350.
Kwon Yong Rock did not publicly comment on this information and it is unclear where he is at this time. North Korea provides little public information about its top officials, especially those who may be involved in dubious activities abroad and who may be subject to US sanctions. Kwon Yong Rock has never been mentioned in the official North Korean media for the past 20 years.
Another member of Kim Jong Un’s inner circle, whom the intelligence officer spoken to by Bloomberg declined to name, recently arrived in the Austrian capital and may still be in Europe.
The regime’s last financial institution in Europe, Golden Star Bank, was based in Vienna until its closure was ordered more than a decade ago.
However, his network of contacts and clients remained, making Vienna a permanent hub for cash flows related to attempts to circumvent sanctions.
Sales of two luxury yachts in Italy were hampered in 2009 (investigators suspect that the yachts were destined for the Kim family under Kim Jong Ilui) revealed ways North Korea is trying to acquire licensed goods through Austria, said a person with information about the operation.
Several embassy officials in Vienna each received 50,000 euros ($ 70,000 at the time), which was transferred through various offshore entities located in places like the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands.
The diplomats transferred the money to an Austrian businessman, who passed it on to the companies that bought the yachts. UN Security Council 2012 and 2016 Reports published in 2006 indicate that the same businessman was involved in several other orders for luxury goods, from Mercedes cars to pianos.
In recent years, security services at Austria’s container terminals have seized rented boxes of medicines, wine, spirits and other luxury items whose origins can be traced back to embassy staff, said a person familiar with the activity.
2010 An MSS officer appeared in Vienna in search of equipment that was normally used after the earthquake, and the next time second-hand ski lifts and gondolas were bought at the Masikriong ski resort through a Chinese company.
North Koreans assigned to such missions often live in fear, fearing that a wrong move will lead them back to their home country and political prisons.
Kim Jong Un, and formerly his father, uses arbitrary detention as punishment for officials he believes have crossed the line. In some cases, they are even killed, including Kim Jong Uno’s real uncle.
North Korean defectors often talk about how constant pressure fuels paranoia, conflict, and mistrust.
An intelligence officer interviewed by Bloomberg recalled an incident that involved a group of North Korean diplomats having lunch at an Austrian restaurant.
When a diplomat suddenly stood up and ran to the opposite end of the building, another member of the group also jumped to his feet and awkwardly ran through the restaurant to get something to eat.
However, it turned out that the boy didn’t even try to run, he just urgently needed to go to the bathroom. Later, both diplomats returned in embarrassment and sat down at the table again.
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