North Korean defector exposes government’s drug deals and cyber army

A high profile North Korean defector has spoken publicly about the government’s drug deals and cyber army.

North Korean defector exposes the government’s drug deals and cyber army. Picture: AP Photo/Kyodo News.

A senior colonel from Pyongyang’s top spy agency has come forward and revealed details about the North Korean regime’s drug deals and cyber army.

Kim Kuk-song spent 30 years at the spy agency under North Korean leaders Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un before he fled in 2014. Since his defection, he has been living in Seoul and working for South Korean intelligence.

During an interview with the BBC World News, available to stream on Flash, the deflector alleges he was ordered to build a drug laboratory to raise “revolutionary funds” for then leader Kim Jong-il during the arduous march – a famine in the 1990s. The mass starvation saw hundreds of thousands to up to a million people die from prolonged food shortages.

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Senior Colonel Kim Kuk-song deflected in 2014. Picture: Flash

“The production of drugs in Kim Jong-il’s North Korea peaked during the Arduous March,” he said.

“I brought three foreigners into North Korea and built a base to produce drugs. It was ICE (crystal meth).

“All the money in North Korea belongs to Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.

“With that money, he’d build villas, buy cars, buy food, get clothes and enjoy luxuries.”

The military officer claims training of the country’s hackers started as far back as the 1980s. According to Kim Kuk-song, Kim Jong-il said they needed to be prepared for cyber warfare as the future was a digital world.

“The Moranbong University would pick the brightest students from all over the country and put them through six years of special education,” he said.

Kuk-song alleges the money made from drug deals belongs to Kim Jong-un (right) and his father and then North Korea leader Kim Jong Il (left). Picture: AP Photo/Kyodo News.

British security officials believe a North Korean unit known as the Lazarus Group was behind a cyber-attack that crippled parts of the NHS and other organisations around the world in 2017.

The same group is believed to have targeted Sony Pictures in a high-profile hack in 2014.

“This 414 Liaison Office not only conducts cyberterrorism but it also safeguards communication between North Korean spy agents,” he said.

“Internally, we dubbed it Kim Jong-il’s Information Centre.”

Kim Kuk-song has become the most senior defector from North Korea’s military to speak publicly.

The BBC has stated they have verified the colonel’s identity but his account of the events in question is impossible to verify. High profile defectors have told the broadcaster his account is plausible and it does fit with the knowledge of North Korea at the time.