북한 부자, 유엔본부에서 간첩 활동 North Korean father-and-son spy team discovered working in UN..(VIDEO)
North Korean father-and-son spy team discovered working in UN agencies in Rome and Paris
- Kim Su Gwang worked at the The World Food Programme in Rome
- Father Kim Yong Nam was based at UNESCO in Paris
- Worked with daughter at North Korea at Korean United Development Bank
- Members of North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB)
- The trio were exposed in report for a UN panel of experts
A father-and-son spy team from North Korea has been found working inside two agencies at the United Nations.
Kim Su Gwang, 38, was working at the headquarters of The World Food Programme in Rome while his father Kim Yong Nam, 67, was based in Paris for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Kim Young Nam's daughter, Kim Su Gyong, who was based at the Korean United Development Bank in Pyongyang, was also identified as 'engaged in financial activities under false pretences in order to conceal the involvement of her country.'
Spies: Members of Kim Jong-Un's intelligence services were found working inside two agencies in the United Nations
The trio were exposed in a report for a UN panel of experts, which described both as intelligence officers 'operating under the cover of a position as an international civil servant'. Neither men remain in their positions while all three have had their assets frozen.
The two men were named as members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the North Korean intelligence agency which is responsible for clandestine operations abroad.
Kim Su Gwang, who has four known aliases, was named as the son of Kim Yong Nam.
Peter Smerdon, a WFP spokesman in Rome, said: 'WFP staff are international civil servants. As such they must remain independent of any authority outside their organisation and their conduct must reflect that independence.'
Humanitarian activities by the UN, as well as private relief groups, constitute the longest ongoing engagement between the hermit state and the international community. During the 1990s, the UN agency supplied millions of people with food during a famine killed up to five per cent of the pre-crisis population.
John Swenson-Wright, the head of the Asia Programme at Chatham House, told The Telegraph this could explain why North Korean intelligence chose to target the WFP.
'It may be that the North Koreans questioned the independence and objectivity of the WFP's efforts,' he said. 'It would be difficult to convince them that your interest is purely humanitarian and you won't be gathering sensitive information.'
He said that North Korea was keen to conceal the extent of hardship within the country.
'There is an instinctive desire to limit access to information, even the most basic kinds of information which we would not consider controversial, such as where poverty is concentrated,' he said.
North Korea's bankrupt regime is desperately short of funds meaning diplomats, embassies - and intelligence officers - have to self finance. Profits they earn through legal, or illegal, means are sent back to Pyongyang.
Aid: North Koreans prepare the salt pans in Nampo for salt production as part of a project organised by the World Food Programme. A member of North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau infiltrated the UN agency
Harvesting rice: The WFP is one of the few international organisations with a presence inside North Korea which is thought to be why it was targeted by intelligence services
The same UN report says that other North Korean intelligence officers were arrested at an unnamed airport in South East Asia while carrying $450,000 (£292,000) in cash. The draft version of the report redacts the names of the countries and companies involved, but states the money was 'suspected to be proceeds from an arms transaction'.
The WFP still has a presence inside North Korea. Mr Smerdon said the agency was helping 1.1 million women and children across the country who 'suffer from chronic malnutrition due to a diet lacking in key micro-nutrients'.
North Korea leverages information collected by four intelligence organisations to plan and formulate internal policy and to undermine the political stability of South Korea, according to the US Department of Defense.
The report said agents of the RGB North Korea's main intelligence agency, were using international organisations and were using those positions to support activities aimed at skirting sanctions.
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