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To Make a Killing · Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince

0:09
Speaker 1: In a twelve year old Asian boy with a bowl haircut,
0:13
Speaker 1: his body hugged by a jumpsuit, walked into a boarding
0:17
Speaker 1: school and burned Switzerland. He was, by all appearances, just
0:21
Speaker 1: another spoiled, rich kid. He loved action movies and airplanes.
0:26
Speaker 1: He was obsessed with basketball, especially the Chicago Bulls. Each
0:32
Speaker 1: new academic year, he was the envy of the class,
0:36
Speaker 1: strutting around the schoolyard and a pair of freshly unboxed
0:39
Speaker 1: air Jordan's. According to classmates, the boy answered to the
0:44
Speaker 1: name Pagun. But what they didn't know is that Swiss
0:48
Speaker 1: authorities had a different name on file. According to the
0:52
Speaker 1: kids Brazilian passport, his real name was Joseph Plague. But
0:59
Speaker 1: here's the secret. Neither name was real. Joseph Poague and Pagun,
1:05
Speaker 1: we're just aliases. The twelve year old's real name was
1:10
Speaker 1: Kim Chang Un, and for the next four years, the
1:14
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's loving son of a tyrant would use these
1:17
Speaker 1: phony personas to conceal his identity and gallivant around Europe undetected,
1:23
Speaker 1: just like his older brother. But what's most fascinating about
1:27
Speaker 1: Kim Dongan's fake Brazilian passport isn't the alias or the
1:31
Speaker 1: country of origin. What's most intriguing is that the document
1:36
Speaker 1: lists his father as a man called Ricardo Poague, who
1:43
Speaker 1: was he Well, Ricardo Plague was a real person, at
1:48
Speaker 1: least the fake name of a real person, but we
1:51
Speaker 1: know that he was a top level North Korean official,
1:54
Speaker 1: one who traveled to Europe regularly, often staying in luxury hotels.
2:00
Speaker 1: According to Anna Fifield's book, Ricardo was quote charged with
2:04
Speaker 1: buying buildings for the North Korean ruling class. And if
2:09
Speaker 1: that's any indication, we have a good idea about the
2:12
Speaker 1: man's real identity. We don't know for sure her Ricardo
2:17
Speaker 1: Plague was um, but there has been suggested that Jang
2:21
Speaker 1: Song Tech was that person. Chang's Hung Tech, the uncle
2:26
Speaker 1: of both Kim jongan and Kim Chong nam, widely considered
2:31
Speaker 1: one of the most influential people in the regime. Juan
2:35
Speaker 1: Song Tech's role in the regime was to go out
2:37
Speaker 1: into the world. He was very mercurial, gregarious character h
2:42
Speaker 1: and he was in charge of a lot of economic
2:44
Speaker 1: liaison with the outside world, mostly with China, but he
2:48
Speaker 1: also traveled quite a lot in Europe. In the nineties,
2:52
Speaker 1: Chang Song tech was one of the most powerful men
2:55
Speaker 1: in North Korea. Decades earlier, he had married Kim Jong
2:59
Speaker 1: il sister and became a close confidante to the dear leader.
3:03
Speaker 1: He was always on the move, traveling the world undercover,
3:08
Speaker 1: securing deals to help fund the regime. He was so
3:12
Speaker 1: powerful that, as you may remember, some pundits called him
3:16
Speaker 1: quote the Kim jong Il who goes abroad. It's hard
3:21
Speaker 1: to overstate how close Kim Jong Il and Chang Song
3:24
Speaker 1: pech were. He acted as a father figure to the
3:27
Speaker 1: Supreme Leader's children, change even personally held auditions for the
3:32
Speaker 1: women in Kim Jong Il's harem. And during the two
3:37
Speaker 1: thousand's some North Korea watchers speculated that Chang could be
3:41
Speaker 1: chosen to lead the nation. Of course, that honor would
3:46
Speaker 1: go to Tongues or should we say Ricardo Poague's fake
3:50
Speaker 1: Brazilian son. But that decision didn't nooter Uncle Chan's power,
3:57
Speaker 1: because when Kim Jong n took over in twenty eleven,
4:01
Speaker 1: it was Chang who helped shepherd his nephew through North
4:04
Speaker 1: Korea's bureaucracy. It was Chang who helped him build relationships
4:08
Speaker 1: with the Polite Bureau. It was Chang who built apartments
4:12
Speaker 1: and resorts to glorify the new ruler, and it was
4:15
Speaker 1: Chang who served as Kim Jongan's closest advisor. Chang Song
4:22
Speaker 1: tech essentially functioned as Kim Jongan's chief of staff. The
4:28
Speaker 1: two were like father and son, like Ricardo and Joseph Plague.
4:34
Speaker 1: But Uncle Tong harbored a secret, one that linked him
4:39
Speaker 1: to King Chong Nam, and one that would reportedly soon
4:43
Speaker 1: have him staring down the barrel of an anti aircraft gun.
4:50
Speaker 1: I'm eating lee and in this episode, dirty money, risky reform,
4:55
Speaker 1: and failed coups inside the money making schemes that may
4:59
Speaker 1: have had several members of the Kim dynasty to gamble
5:04
Speaker 1: with their lives. There are also plenty of suggestions that
5:08
Speaker 1: he was still in cohots with the regime. North Korean
5:12
Speaker 1: diplomat stationed abroad have really behaved like a criminal mob
5:18
Speaker 1: and you could see Jong Song text saying, why am
5:21
Speaker 1: I going to turn over my life's work to my
5:24
Speaker 1: snot nose twentysomething nephew, This is big brother. When the
5:42
Speaker 1: Japanese journalist Yoji Komi first reported on Kim Jong Nam's
5:46
Speaker 1: criticisms of the regime. The DPRK responded with fury, sending
5:51
Speaker 1: the prince into a brief hiding or, as Kim Jong
5:55
Speaker 1: Nam told Comey, I just have to be careful. But
5:59
Speaker 1: things eventually cooled over. Kim Jong Il was running the country.
6:05
Speaker 1: He still loved his son, so the risks of needling
6:08
Speaker 1: the regime were relatively low. But things were different when
6:13
Speaker 1: Comey published his book. Kim Jong Il was dead and
6:18
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Un was now in charge, and nobody knew
6:21
Speaker 1: how he'd react to his brother's inflammatory comments. It didn't
6:26
Speaker 1: help that Kim Jong nam had suggested that North Korea
6:29
Speaker 1: should liberalize its economy and claim that the best hope
6:33
Speaker 1: for reform was not his little brother but Uncle Tong.
6:38
Speaker 1: Michael Madden explains, probably Jong probably had different ideas as
6:43
Speaker 1: to what North Korea's economy should be doing. In a
6:46
Speaker 1: North Korean context, he was most likely a reformer. In fact,
6:52
Speaker 1: Uncle Chang had a proven track record of nudging the
6:56
Speaker 1: country in new directions. Evidence of are some evidence that
7:01
Speaker 1: there were certain relaxations of social policies in North Korea
7:05
Speaker 1: under Joan Song text leadership of the Internal Security Apparatus,
7:10
Speaker 1: A toleration of religious activities, both Christianity and Shamanism. And
7:15
Speaker 1: there was a certain degree of clemency and pardon given
7:18
Speaker 1: to people who fled illegally into China to seek work
7:22
Speaker 1: or to seek economic relief, for to seek food. Uncle
7:25
Speaker 1: Chang's influence was very real. A little more than a
7:30
Speaker 1: decade earlier, change may have nudged Kim Jong il toward reform.
7:35
Speaker 1: The Supreme Leader had adopted a new constitution, one that
7:39
Speaker 1: embraced quote prime costs, prices and profits. Profits. Now, that
7:45
Speaker 1: wasn't very communist. Neither was a new constitutional article calling
7:50
Speaker 1: for quote enterprises with corporations or individuals of foreign countries.
7:55
Speaker 1: The foreign country being Uncle Tong's friend China. Jong was
8:01
Speaker 1: very much aligned with China, whereby Chinese investment money would
8:05
Speaker 1: come into North Korean economic sites. Years later, can even
8:09
Speaker 1: pushed to create multiple economic zones along the border, miniature
8:13
Speaker 1: capitalist fifdoms that functioned as incubators for innovation. Kim Jongan
8:19
Speaker 1: actually embraced these ideas. The country created more than a
8:23
Speaker 1: dozen of them. On that here's Jenny Town of the
8:27
Speaker 1: Simpsons Center. Kim Jongan has really tried to put himself
8:30
Speaker 1: out as trying to usher in an era of economic
8:33
Speaker 1: prosperity and not just survival. There was a real emphasis
8:37
Speaker 1: on these special economic zones. North Korea was willing to
8:41
Speaker 1: do a lot of interesting things um and created you know,
8:46
Speaker 1: the legal space for these zones to develop. Kim jong
8:50
Speaker 1: Un also allowed the country's private black markets to blossom.
8:55
Speaker 1: Since then, this black market economy has grown into a
8:59
Speaker 1: legitimate proct this with many towns hosting government approved marketplaces.
9:04
Speaker 1: In terms of the actual market activity in the economy itself, um,
9:10
Speaker 1: there's been rising economic activity and it's under the kimjong
9:14
Speaker 1: on era. Today there are private grocers, private restaurants, private
9:19
Speaker 1: travel companies, and even private taxis all competing for customers.
9:24
Speaker 1: By at least of North Korea's population was running or
9:29
Speaker 1: working for some sort of private enterprise. And experts agree
9:34
Speaker 1: the standard of living has increased. There has been a
9:38
Speaker 1: real rise in accumulated wealth per person. Then there's been
9:44
Speaker 1: some you know, medium size to larger size businesses that
9:49
Speaker 1: have flourished in the past few years. What you've also
9:52
Speaker 1: seen is a real loosening of control over like the
9:56
Speaker 1: state owned enterprises. This of course is not the Chinese
10:00
Speaker 1: style reform. Uncle Chang and Kim jong Nam advocated for.
10:04
Speaker 1: But it's something It's almost as if the two men
10:07
Speaker 1: were given the freedom to whisper into Kim jong UN's ear.
10:12
Speaker 1: Perhaps Yoji Komi's book full of Kim jong Nam's proddings
10:17
Speaker 1: and the aged wisdom of Uncle Chang actually made an
10:21
Speaker 1: impression on the young dictator. That's one interpretation. The other
10:28
Speaker 1: simply times are tough in North Korea, but by allowing
10:32
Speaker 1: these markets to exist, Kim jong Un has marginally boosted
10:36
Speaker 1: the standard of living and boosted his own popularity. The
10:41
Speaker 1: decision was ultimately self serving. Besides, there's an economic benefit
10:47
Speaker 1: to letting private enterprises operate under the surface. The state
10:51
Speaker 1: can devote fewer funds to social institutions and spend more
10:55
Speaker 1: on its real priorities like nuclear weapons. And since the
11:00
Speaker 1: rise of the private economy, the regime has been pouring
11:03
Speaker 1: more resources into money making schemes and lessen to its people.
11:09
Speaker 1: And that's where the fates of Kim Jong Nam and
11:12
Speaker 1: Uncle Tang Song tech become tangled and messy. Because Kim
11:17
Speaker 1: jong Nam's death it might have nothing to do with
11:21
Speaker 1: the successorship, It might have nothing to do with dueling
11:24
Speaker 1: families or deceitful stepmothers. Their deaths might have everything to
11:31
Speaker 1: do with money. There are lots of theories as to
11:51
Speaker 1: why Kim jong nam was assassinated. His Peck two blood
11:56
Speaker 1: was a threat to Kim Jong NaN's power. He had
11:59
Speaker 1: argued for warm and opening up. He publicly criticized and
12:03
Speaker 1: embarrassed the regime by speaking to journalists. But there's another theory,
12:09
Speaker 1: and to understand it you have to know a little
12:11
Speaker 1: about how North Korea makes money. The country has a
12:16
Speaker 1: diverse portfolio. Each year, it sends tens of thousands of
12:20
Speaker 1: migrant laborers, construction workers, loggers, farmers two countries like Kuwait, Botswana,
12:27
Speaker 1: and even Poland. These indentured servants send the majority of
12:31
Speaker 1: their paychecks back to the regime. The country also boasts
12:36
Speaker 1: a small manufacturing sector. In the seventies and eighties, North
12:40
Speaker 1: Korea was one of the biggest makers and exporters of
12:43
Speaker 1: pachinko gambling machines in Asia. They sold many of these
12:48
Speaker 1: popular systems to the yakuza, But selling gambling games to
12:53
Speaker 1: an organized crime syndicate is relatively above board compared to
12:57
Speaker 1: their other dirty money dealings. Deep inside the concrete bunkers
13:02
Speaker 1: of Kung young. A secret government bureau called Room thirty
13:06
Speaker 1: nine manages hundreds of illicit money making schemes, from human
13:10
Speaker 1: trafficking to money laundering to rhinoceros horns smuggling. I would
13:17
Speaker 1: say the North Korean leaders are very good at weaponizing
13:21
Speaker 1: their own weirdness. That again is Dr Sun Un Lee
13:26
Speaker 1: of Tufts University. They do these strange things, the state
13:29
Speaker 1: sponsoring illegal activities, not only weapons proliferation, but the production
13:34
Speaker 1: of fake famous brand cigarettes like Marlborough and other brands.
13:39
Speaker 1: The North Korean regime is a king among counterfeiters, cigarettes, handbags, sneakers, watches,
13:48
Speaker 1: you name it, they make it. And in the late
13:51
Speaker 1: nineties and early two thousands they were the world's leader
13:54
Speaker 1: at pumping out convincingly real hundred dollar bills called super
14:00
Speaker 1: dollars and matt help them pedal drugs, lots of them.
14:06
Speaker 1: They sell drugs. This is the state, not just criminal
14:09
Speaker 1: gangs inside North Korea, but the state sponsoring all these
14:13
Speaker 1: illicit activities. North Korea ships heroin to places like Australia
14:18
Speaker 1: and smuggles counterfeit prescription drugs to Bulgaria. It supplies of
14:23
Speaker 1: Japan's math amphetamine with some high quality crystal meth landing
14:28
Speaker 1: in the US. One of North Korea's most ingenious money
14:32
Speaker 1: making methods, however, revolves around a vast network of diplomats
14:37
Speaker 1: and international residents, people like Kim Jong nam and Chang
14:42
Speaker 1: Zong Pec. North Korean diplomat stationed abroad have really behaved
14:48
Speaker 1: like an official criminal mob under the guise of diplomatic immunity,
14:53
Speaker 1: engaging in criminal activities for profit. That's because North Korea's
14:58
Speaker 1: diplomats and foreign elites are responsible for earning money for
15:01
Speaker 1: the regime, often using diplomatic immunity as a cover. Here
15:07
Speaker 1: again is Michael Madden, originally North Korean. Originally North Korea
15:12
Speaker 1: did a lot of these transactions through their embassy, but
15:15
Speaker 1: the original idea in four was to sell drugs and gold.
15:21
Speaker 1: There's very strict controls about selling gold, and the way
15:24
Speaker 1: to avoid that was through the diplomatic black bag, which
15:28
Speaker 1: is to say, diplomats have immunity, and the diplomats luggage
15:32
Speaker 1: and briefcases cannot be inspected by customs officials. So North
15:37
Speaker 1: Korea decided to sell gold and brought opium to be
15:40
Speaker 1: processed in and the man who had that bright idea
15:44
Speaker 1: to use the diplomatic black bag was a young North
15:48
Speaker 1: Korean official named John Song Tech. Since then, these money
15:55
Speaker 1: making techniques have only gotten more sophisticated. The leadership like,
16:00
Speaker 1: you guys go in a business. The leaders say, you guys,
16:02
Speaker 1: go into business for yourselves. You get your own export
16:06
Speaker 1: import network, on your own book, and as long as
16:09
Speaker 1: you just turned the money over to me, then we
16:11
Speaker 1: won't have a problem. This is a little bit like
16:14
Speaker 1: the mafia, where they have to kick up the money
16:16
Speaker 1: for the regime. And that maybe what ultimately got Kim
16:20
Speaker 1: jong Nam in trouble because as times got tight and
16:23
Speaker 1: quotas got harder to hit, North Korean elites may have
16:27
Speaker 1: started eyeing each other's money ventures and there was a competition.
16:32
Speaker 1: There was a competition, almost a feeding frenzy among North
16:36
Speaker 1: Korean elites trying to earn foreign currency because it ingratiates
16:40
Speaker 1: you to the leader. For North Korean elites, there was
16:44
Speaker 1: an arms race to make money. And if Kim jong
16:48
Speaker 1: nam had one advantage above the rest, it's that he
16:51
Speaker 1: lived in a place where money, clean and dirty, was
16:56
Speaker 1: easy to make and even easier to hide. Macau. In
17:11
Speaker 1: two thousand four, American law enforcement agencies discovered that Chinese
17:16
Speaker 1: gangs were smuggling North Korean made counterfeits, fake currency, fake cigarettes,
17:22
Speaker 1: and even fake viagra into the port of Newark, New Jersey.
17:27
Speaker 1: What followed is a masterclass and espionage. Two American spies,
17:33
Speaker 1: undercover as an engaged couple, infiltrated the criminal network. They
17:38
Speaker 1: began helping the group's transport containers of counterfeit goods passed
17:42
Speaker 1: you as customs, such as narcotics, and even surface to
17:47
Speaker 1: air missiles. After winning the smugglers trust, the love birds
17:53
Speaker 1: invited them to a fake wedding on a yacht off
17:56
Speaker 1: the coast of Atlantic City. The criminals came to America
18:00
Speaker 1: and stepped inside limousines that, according to the wedding invitation,
18:05
Speaker 1: would take them to the ceremony. Inside the limousines tuxedo
18:11
Speaker 1: clad FBI agents. The entire operation led to the indictment
18:18
Speaker 1: of eighties seven suspects, But the biggest surprise came when
18:24
Speaker 1: secret agents followed the money. It led straight to the
18:28
Speaker 1: Shining city on the Pearl River Delta, Macau. Within a year,
18:34
Speaker 1: investigators had discovered that nearly every bank in Macau was
18:38
Speaker 1: laundering super dollars for the North Korean regime. Big banks,
18:43
Speaker 1: little banks. It didn't matter. Almost all were involved. Even
18:47
Speaker 1: the local branch of the Bank of China, the fifth
18:50
Speaker 1: largest bank on the planet, was allegedly laundering counterfeit money.
18:56
Speaker 1: When it came time to slap Macau's banks with penalties,
18:59
Speaker 1: the Ues Department of Justice ultimately decided to leave the
19:02
Speaker 1: bigger institutions like the Bank of China alone, presumably to
19:08
Speaker 1: avoid triggering a global economic catastrophe. Instead, it targeted one small,
19:14
Speaker 1: family owned institution called Banko Delta Asia. Sanctions reigned down
19:22
Speaker 1: on the tiny bank. Suddenly, the institution could no longer
19:26
Speaker 1: deal in US currency, essentially locking it out of the
19:30
Speaker 1: global economy. The bank froze all of its accounts linked
19:34
Speaker 1: to North Korea out of fear of being next. So
19:38
Speaker 1: did every other bank in Macau. According to congressional testimony,
19:44
Speaker 1: the freeze worked, North Korea's production lines ground to a halt.
19:49
Speaker 1: Even the famously dodgy government of Macau instituted a ream
19:53
Speaker 1: of new money laundering laws, forcing North Korea's criminal elements
19:58
Speaker 1: to find new ways to bank their cash. By this point,
20:02
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam had been living in Macau for at
20:04
Speaker 1: least five years. No evidence, however, has ever tied him
20:09
Speaker 1: to the laundering scheme. I don't know whether he was
20:14
Speaker 1: involved in the Banko Delta Asia situation, but I think
20:17
Speaker 1: the reasons for both of these things, for Kim jong
20:21
Speaker 1: Nam being there and for Banko Delta Asia being a
20:24
Speaker 1: conduit for North Korea or risks on the fact that
20:27
Speaker 1: Macau was a pretty opaque place. It's difficult, however, to
20:32
Speaker 1: believe that the son of North Korea's ruler, once the
20:35
Speaker 1: assumed heir to the whole regime, would be unaware what
20:39
Speaker 1: his dad was doing at his neighborhood bank. In fact,
20:44
Speaker 1: reports suggest that Kim jong Nam had access to a
20:47
Speaker 1: substantial cash of counterfeit super dollars, and shortly after the
20:51
Speaker 1: Bank of Delta Asia scandal, it appears that Kim jong
20:54
Speaker 1: nam began searching for novel ways to make and hide
20:59
Speaker 1: large sums of money, and in the process he might
21:03
Speaker 1: have helped make North Korea one of the most dangerous
21:07
Speaker 1: and powerful countries on the planet. In the early two thousands,
21:15
Speaker 1: when Kim jong Nam was comfortably settled in Macau, North
21:19
Speaker 1: Korea began to pivot from physical counterfeiting and smuggling to cybercrime. This,
21:26
Speaker 1: of course, is one of the great ironies of North Korea,
21:30
Speaker 1: few citizens there have access to a computer. Those who
21:34
Speaker 1: do are heavily surveiled with screenshots taken of their activity
21:39
Speaker 1: every time in app is opened. Instead of the Internet,
21:43
Speaker 1: most only have access to an intranet network called Kwangmyong
21:47
Speaker 1: meaning bright Light, which gives access to up to five
21:51
Speaker 1: thousand state approved websites. Only the elite have access to
21:57
Speaker 1: the open Internet. And yet, despite this technological repression, North
22:03
Speaker 1: Korea is home to some of the most obscenely talented
22:06
Speaker 1: computer technicians on the planet. More than seven thousand North
22:11
Speaker 1: Koreans worked in the country cyber army, and they start early.
22:17
Speaker 1: You know, North Korean hackers are North Korean hackers are
22:20
Speaker 1: recruited at about ten years old, so you get a
22:25
Speaker 1: young person that's really good at computer systems, especially computer coding.
22:29
Speaker 1: North Korea finds them when they're in late elementary school.
22:33
Speaker 1: That's where they find their cyber warriors. North Korea does
22:36
Speaker 1: that with gymnasts as well, and figure skaters and piano players.
22:41
Speaker 1: There's not a great difference in their respective systems. You
22:44
Speaker 1: have an aptitude for a certain subject, that's basically what
22:47
Speaker 1: you're going to do for the rest of your life. Indeed,
22:52
Speaker 1: according to the journalists Ed Caesar of the New Yorker,
22:56
Speaker 1: students from Kimilsung University and the Kim Check University the
23:00
Speaker 1: technology often quote outperform American and Chinese colleges in the
23:05
Speaker 1: international collegiate programming contests. Year after year, North Korean students
23:11
Speaker 1: compete at the highest levels at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
23:16
Speaker 1: Here again is Jenny Town. North Korea's cyber capabilities have
23:20
Speaker 1: really grown over the years um and grown to be
23:24
Speaker 1: very adept and very sophisticated. The types of cyber crimes
23:29
Speaker 1: that we've seen have been pretty elaborate. UM. We've even
23:35
Speaker 1: seen in their intelligence gathering side, a real growth in
23:39
Speaker 1: the sophistication of how they try to do different like
23:43
Speaker 1: phishing campaigns. So it is a real and a formidable
23:47
Speaker 1: force and a real growing part of North Korea's economic strategy.
23:54
Speaker 1: Under names like the Beagle Boys, the Lazarus Group, and
23:58
Speaker 1: New Romantic, North Korea's Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau YEP that's
24:05
Speaker 1: its name, have infected computers in more than a hundred
24:08
Speaker 1: and fifty countries, where they've robbed banks, held organizations for
24:13
Speaker 1: ransom and hacked a t MS. North Korea's computer wizards
24:17
Speaker 1: have digitally laundered money in the Philippines and have crypto
24:20
Speaker 1: jack that has stolen more than one point seven five
24:25
Speaker 1: billion dollars in cryptocurrency. They've even breached the servers of
24:30
Speaker 1: the South Korean Army, obtaining the military plans of their
24:34
Speaker 1: neighboring enemy. This is Kim jong Nam's legacy in North
24:39
Speaker 1: Korea and for that matter, the world. Na If we
24:45
Speaker 1: go and track Kim jong Nam at the Korean Computer
24:48
Speaker 1: Center from around they're importing computers into the country. They're
24:55
Speaker 1: importing computers into North Korean schools. Those are the tools
24:59
Speaker 1: they eventually was for recruiting hackers. Kim jong Nam is
25:03
Speaker 1: essentially responsible for a lot of the computer hardware that
25:06
Speaker 1: the cyber warriors trained on in the nineties and the
25:09
Speaker 1: early two thousand's. Kim Jong Nam planted the seeds for
25:13
Speaker 1: North Korea's vast and powerful network of hackers, and not
25:17
Speaker 1: only that, he might have been actively supporting these activities
25:21
Speaker 1: from his home in Macau. Shortly after the Banko Delta fiasco,
25:27
Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam visited the Shangri La Hotel in Bangkok
25:31
Speaker 1: and met with an expert in Internet security. Chong Nam
25:35
Speaker 1: used a false name, introducing himself as Johnny Kim, and
25:39
Speaker 1: explained that he was running a business and he needed
25:42
Speaker 1: an I T specialist who could protect his servers. Unaware
25:47
Speaker 1: of Johnny Kim's real identity and unsure of the nature
25:51
Speaker 1: of his work, the Internet expert agreed to take the job.
25:55
Speaker 1: The same man who would anonymously discuss these details with
25:59
Speaker 1: Anna Fifield told her that something was fishy about the
26:03
Speaker 1: man called Johnny Kim. He described going around places in
26:09
Speaker 1: Southeast Asia together with Kim Jong Nam and just talked
26:13
Speaker 1: about how security conscious he was. He always walked down
26:19
Speaker 1: back alleys and places where he knew that there wouldn't
26:21
Speaker 1: be UH security cameras. He was always on the lookout
26:26
Speaker 1: for Japanese people, in particular because Japanese journalists had been
26:29
Speaker 1: so aggressive or active in trying to track him down
26:34
Speaker 1: and talk to him. So he was someone who very
26:36
Speaker 1: much had his wits about him. Even as a manager,
26:40
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam was secretive. The Internet expert was paid
26:44
Speaker 1: in one dollar bills later revealed to be counterfeit super dollars.
26:49
Speaker 1: The man was paired with two cyber specialists, both of
26:53
Speaker 1: them apparently North Korean's. Eventually, the Internet expert learned that
26:58
Speaker 1: kim so called business was actually dozens upon dozens of
27:03
Speaker 1: gambling websites. Online gambling is an easy way to launder money.
27:09
Speaker 1: It's virtual, there's high cash flow coming from across the globe,
27:13
Speaker 1: and there are significant profit margins by running not just one,
27:18
Speaker 1: but dozens of gambling sites. It's believed that Kim jong
27:22
Speaker 1: Nam could spread illegal and counterfeit funds around, diluting suspicious activity,
27:28
Speaker 1: and this suggests a tantalizing theory. When North Korea could
27:34
Speaker 1: no longer launder physical dollars in Macau's bank, did it
27:39
Speaker 1: find a work around by embracing the murky world of
27:42
Speaker 1: internet gambling? And was Kim jong Nam the mastermind behind it?
27:48
Speaker 1: And more to the point, if he was making money
27:51
Speaker 1: this way, was he keeping it for himself or sending
27:55
Speaker 1: it back to the regime. There are also plenty of
28:00
Speaker 1: suggestions that he was still in cohots with the regime,
28:04
Speaker 1: whether it was sending money back, you know, raising money
28:08
Speaker 1: for the regime or for his uncle Down Song Tech,
28:12
Speaker 1: who was he was very close to. Were Chang Song
28:16
Speaker 1: Tech and Kim Jong Nam working together to launder money
28:20
Speaker 1: was Kim jong Nam sent to Macau not to satisfy
28:22
Speaker 1: his capitalist playboy lifestyle, but because it was a kind
28:26
Speaker 1: of place where he could exploit capitalism. This was a
28:30
Speaker 1: place where he was able to do a lot of
28:32
Speaker 1: his business, including potentially running computing or tech businesses for
28:38
Speaker 1: the North Korean regime. They've been suggestions over the years
28:42
Speaker 1: that he was running the Korean Computer Center and involved
28:45
Speaker 1: in a lot of cyber activities, either on behalf of
28:49
Speaker 1: the North Korean regime or on on his own behalf.
28:52
Speaker 1: There we don't have solid answers to these questions. Kim
28:56
Speaker 1: jong Nam might have had access to millions of dollars
28:59
Speaker 1: at a time, and other North Korean elites were desperate
29:02
Speaker 1: to make money for the regime, And as one of
29:05
Speaker 1: our sources who agreed to speak on background suggested, there's
29:09
Speaker 1: another layer to this tantalizing theory. Kim jong Nam's online
29:14
Speaker 1: businesses were much more than just fronts to make money.
29:18
Speaker 1: They were also backdoors to order and procure equipment for
29:22
Speaker 1: the regime. That is, when North Korea could an import
29:26
Speaker 1: and item because of sanctions, Kim Jong Nam, from the
29:30
Speaker 1: safety of Southern China could use his online businesses to
29:35
Speaker 1: procure it for them, and according to our source, he
29:39
Speaker 1: used that loophole to buy gadgets and tech that could
29:42
Speaker 1: be used to fuel North Korea's cyber warfare division. Then
29:47
Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam was not living a life of exile
29:50
Speaker 1: in Macao. He was actively helping build up one of
29:54
Speaker 1: the regime's most notorious and now dangerous divisions. In other words,
30:01
Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam had power, and that might have stoked
30:06
Speaker 1: the ire of other North Korean elites who were not
30:09
Speaker 1: only jealous of the connections he had, but also struggling
30:13
Speaker 1: to make their payments to the regime. They probably wanted
30:18
Speaker 1: to get their hands on his secret recipe, but from
30:22
Speaker 1: his capitalist perch and Macau, Kim jong Nam saw no
30:26
Speaker 1: reason to share it, so maybe they wanted to take
30:32
Speaker 1: it from him. We had to learn more about this theory.
30:51
Speaker 1: Was it possible that Kim jong Nam's death was in
30:54
Speaker 1: fact sparked not by Kim Jong un but by jealous
30:57
Speaker 1: North Korean elites desperate to get their hands on his
31:01
Speaker 1: money making software. The theory does make some sense. After all,
31:07
Speaker 1: there were at least two attempts on Kim jong Nam's
31:09
Speaker 1: life in the years prior long before Kim jong un
31:13
Speaker 1: held any power. It's extremely unlikely his father, when he
31:17
Speaker 1: was in control, had ordered these hits. So who did
31:22
Speaker 1: Was someone trying to clear the path to the throne,
31:25
Speaker 1: or were they trying to get their hands on his money?
31:28
Speaker 1: Or were they after this tantalizing software that he and
31:31
Speaker 1: only he controlled. We tried to corroborate our anonymous sources claims,
31:37
Speaker 1: but most experts we interviewed couldn't confirm it. However, they
31:40
Speaker 1: didn't rule it out either. My name is Sue Kim.
31:44
Speaker 1: I'm a policy analyst at the Rare Incorporation UM. I
31:48
Speaker 1: was a CIA analyst on North Korea. Sue Kim has
31:52
Speaker 1: thought about these possibilities. Could someone else have ordered the
31:56
Speaker 1: hit on Kim jong nam, whether on their own or
31:58
Speaker 1: maybe as a favor to the new Supreme leader? Absolutely possible.
32:03
Speaker 1: I would say that for for a senior North three
32:06
Speaker 1: officials due to want to do this as a quote
32:08
Speaker 1: unquote favor, But I think this would have to be
32:11
Speaker 1: approved by by Kim jongan because not just because of
32:15
Speaker 1: the high stakes involved in terms of you know, killing
32:18
Speaker 1: a family member, but because there's potential backlash. I think
32:22
Speaker 1: up to a certain point, yes, it's possible, But then again,
32:25
Speaker 1: keep in mind that decisions authority it's all resting on
32:29
Speaker 1: Kim Jongan, so very likely Kim Jongan had to at
32:35
Speaker 1: least approve the hit, But that's not the same as
32:39
Speaker 1: ordering the hit, and as Kim Jongan had proven before,
32:45
Speaker 1: he wasn't afraid to do that. That takes us back
32:54
Speaker 1: to the beginning of this episode, when Kim Jongan was
32:57
Speaker 1: masquerading as a Brazilian boy called Joseph Plague. While studying
33:02
Speaker 1: in Switzerland, Kim Jongan fell in love with the snow
33:06
Speaker 1: and the mountains. He learned how to ski and spent
33:09
Speaker 1: weekends at resorts outside the city of Burn. When he
33:13
Speaker 1: became Supreme Leader, Kim Jongan was determined to bring these
33:17
Speaker 1: places to North Korea, So about a year and a
33:21
Speaker 1: half into his regime, Kim Jongan told Chang Song tech
33:24
Speaker 1: that he wanted to build both a ski resort and
33:27
Speaker 1: a water park. According to the testimony of a defector,
33:32
Speaker 1: this is where Uncle Chang first slipped. He suggested that
33:36
Speaker 1: the young ruler should focus on the economy before he
33:39
Speaker 1: ventured to build a water park. Kim jong un did
33:44
Speaker 1: not take this suggestion. Well, we don't know what happened
33:48
Speaker 1: behind the palace walls, but it's reasonable to assume that
33:52
Speaker 1: Kim Jongan argued that building a luxury resort was building
33:55
Speaker 1: up the economy because in two thousand and six the
33:59
Speaker 1: United Nations targeted North Korea with sanctions hitting nearly every
34:03
Speaker 1: sector of its economy with the exception of tourism. Tourism
34:08
Speaker 1: has been a very big part also of how the
34:11
Speaker 1: state makes money. And um, these were special zones for
34:14
Speaker 1: inter crean tourism, and there was actually a lot of
34:17
Speaker 1: activity that went on between them. Um, there's a real
34:20
Speaker 1: rise in tourism from China, and you saw a real
34:24
Speaker 1: emphasis and investment in creating more attractive tourist destinations, so
34:31
Speaker 1: different Hot Springs, Um. You know, the build up of
34:34
Speaker 1: the beach resort at once and over the years the
34:37
Speaker 1: massive ground um Ski resort. So what Uncle Tong saw
34:42
Speaker 1: as wasteful spending on piddling pleasure resorts was in fact,
34:47
Speaker 1: in Kim Jongan's mind at least an investment, a way
34:51
Speaker 1: to make much needed money in a legitimate way. It
34:54
Speaker 1: was also a way to convince citizens that life was
34:57
Speaker 1: indeed getting better. But Chung's opposition made Kim Jongan skeptical
35:03
Speaker 1: of his father's old number two, and so he's looking around.
35:06
Speaker 1: He's looking around. He's looking at these grizzled six seventy
35:10
Speaker 1: five year old North Korean officials. He's looking to see
35:13
Speaker 1: who's going to be loyal and who's going to form
35:15
Speaker 1: an alternative power center, who's going to be a threat
35:18
Speaker 1: to his consolidation of power. That's where Jong Song Tech
35:21
Speaker 1: starts to loom large. Eventually, Uncle Tong complied, and within
35:27
Speaker 1: a few years, as North Korea plunged into another food crisis,
35:32
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Un would proudly unveil the mash Young Ski
35:36
Speaker 1: Resort and the muns Who Water Park. He constructs a
35:40
Speaker 1: dolphin aquarium and developed the Sandy Beach front around the
35:44
Speaker 1: Royal compounded One's Hunt with department stores, golf courses, beach resorts,
35:50
Speaker 1: and missile launch pads. But according to defectors, Kim Jong
35:55
Speaker 1: Un and Uncle Tong's relationship never recovered, and he started
36:00
Speaker 1: to undermine his death. He started to undermine his nephew.
36:03
Speaker 1: And we have to look at it from the perspective
36:05
Speaker 1: of Jong Song Tech. John Song Tech is a man
36:08
Speaker 1: in his late sixties. He had been in the center
36:11
Speaker 1: of North Korea power going back to the nineties seventies,
36:14
Speaker 1: he had fallen in and out of favor, and so
36:17
Speaker 1: you could see Jong Sung Tech being sixty five sixty
36:20
Speaker 1: six years old in two thousand eleven and said, why
36:24
Speaker 1: am I going to turn over all of this power?
36:26
Speaker 1: Why am I going to turn over my life's work
36:29
Speaker 1: to my snot nosed twentysomething nephew. Maybe there is a
36:33
Speaker 1: degree of resentment in that, and so that starts to
36:35
Speaker 1: form these tensions. Things got even testier when the dear
36:40
Speaker 1: Leader ordered Changue to relinquish control of a condensed milk
36:44
Speaker 1: factory and a fish farm. Apparently members of the government
36:48
Speaker 1: loyal to change blocked the transition when Kim Jong UN's
36:51
Speaker 1: men came to take over. Some say that was the
36:55
Speaker 1: last straw. Others suggest that Kim Jong Un had this
37:00
Speaker 1: covered Uncle Chang's secret that in two thousand and eight,
37:03
Speaker 1: when Kim Jong Il was recovering from a stroke, Chang
37:07
Speaker 1: had been pushing unsuccessfully to have King Chong Nam chosen
37:12
Speaker 1: as the next successor. Chang Song Tech, in other words,
37:16
Speaker 1: was a trader to Kim Jong Un from the start.
37:22
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Un sort of had to put his uncle
37:24
Speaker 1: down because his uncle was undermining him. In late Uncle
37:29
Speaker 1: Chang was escorted to the Kongon Military Academy, were two
37:33
Speaker 1: of his closest deputies and arguably two of his closest friends,
37:39
Speaker 1: were trotted in front of anti aircraft machine guns. The
37:43
Speaker 1: weapons designed to pierce the steel fuselage of airplanes, turned
37:49
Speaker 1: the men into pulp. The remains were incinerated with flamethrowers.
37:57
Speaker 1: Uncle Chang immediately face did change. Had survived purges before,
38:05
Speaker 1: He had been demoted in the past and even sent
38:07
Speaker 1: to re education camps. But when Kim Jong il was
38:11
Speaker 1: in charge, he was always considered family an accordion playing
38:15
Speaker 1: goofball on the other side of the dining table. But
38:20
Speaker 1: this was a new time and Uncle Chang's behavior was
38:25
Speaker 1: a tangible threat for the new Supreme leader, and a
38:31
Speaker 1: Jong Song Tech was undermining him in a way that
38:34
Speaker 1: really not only threatened Kim Jong un as a political figure,
38:37
Speaker 1: but probably threatened Kim Jong UN's life. He was probably
38:41
Speaker 1: the only person in North Korea's political culture that could
38:45
Speaker 1: ferment an assassination against his nephew. Jong Sung Tech was
38:49
Speaker 1: the only one who had the intelligence and the personality
38:52
Speaker 1: and the connections to be able to make the morning
38:54
Speaker 1: after the coup successful. On December eighth, about a week
39:02
Speaker 1: after his friends were executed, Chang was accused of dozens
39:06
Speaker 1: of charges. Namely, he had been planting his followers and
39:10
Speaker 1: keep posts and had quote work to stretch his tentacles
39:14
Speaker 1: even to the People's army with a foolish calculation that
39:18
Speaker 1: he would succeed in staging a coup. Other charges seemed
39:23
Speaker 1: more petty and ridiculous. He was accused of clapping for
39:26
Speaker 1: the new leader quote halfheartedly. A photograph of him leaning
39:31
Speaker 1: on an arm rest during a speech a bored expression
39:35
Speaker 1: on his face was used to prove his disloyalty. Kim
39:40
Speaker 1: Jong Un was unsparing. He described Uncle Chang as quote
39:45
Speaker 1: despicable human scum who was worse than a dog. Only
39:51
Speaker 1: a week past between Chang's arrest and his sentencing, he
39:57
Speaker 1: was taken from the courtroom to the Kongo military training area, and,
40:02
Speaker 1: just like his deputies before him, told to kneel in
40:06
Speaker 1: front of an anti aircraft gun. The death of Uncle
40:17
Speaker 1: Tongue would be a wake up call. It didn't matter
40:22
Speaker 1: how loyal you were to Kim Jongan's father. It didn't
40:25
Speaker 1: matter how well you help the transition of power. It
40:28
Speaker 1: didn't matter if you had good ideas about the economy,
40:32
Speaker 1: and it didn't matter that years earlier your passport said
40:37
Speaker 1: you were father and son. It really did send a
40:41
Speaker 1: message to not only Jiangsung text faction as to this
40:47
Speaker 1: is not your house, this is my house, UM, and
40:51
Speaker 1: you need to fall in line, UM like I might
40:53
Speaker 1: be young, but I still am decisive and can be brutal.
40:57
Speaker 1: In other words, if you assent, you die. After Uncle
41:05
Speaker 1: Tong's death, Kim Jongan proudly stated, our party detected and
41:10
Speaker 1: purged the anti party counter revolutionary factionalists. His uncle's friends
41:17
Speaker 1: were quickly replaced from their posts. Dozens of his closest
41:21
Speaker 1: family members were sent to prison camps. Defector testimonies suggests
41:26
Speaker 1: that more than thirty of Uncle Tong's associates, including family,
41:31
Speaker 1: would be killed by firing squad, but by the end
41:35
Speaker 1: of one of Uncle Tong's closest associates, confidants and friends
41:41
Speaker 1: was out there still alive. Kim Tongue ma'am on the
41:51
Speaker 1: Next Big Brother. How North Korea's relationship with the United
41:56
Speaker 1: States may have contributed to Kim Jong Nam's death in
42:00
Speaker 1: more ways than one. Big Brother is a production of
42:05
Speaker 1: School of Humans and I Heart Radio and hosted by
42:09
Speaker 1: me even Lee. Lucas Riley is our writer, co director
42:13
Speaker 1: and associate producer. Amelia Brock is our senior producer, co
42:17
Speaker 1: director and editor. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
42:22
Speaker 1: Else Crowley, and Jason English. Our fact checker is Aaron Blakemore.
42:27
Speaker 1: Music composed by Jason Todd Shannon and Tunewalders. Original score
42:32
Speaker 1: mixed by Vick Stafford, Audio editing by Jesse nice Wanger,
42:38
Speaker 1: sound design and mixed by Harper W. Harris. Audio correction
42:41
Speaker 1: by Josh Fisher. Voice acting by Mark Chung and Mike Coscarelli.
42:47
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Ryan Murdoch and Will Pearson. If you're
42:51
Speaker 1: enjoying the podcast, help us get the word out by
42:53
Speaker 1: leaving a rating in your favorite podcast app. Until next time,
42:58
Speaker 1: I'm even Lee. School of Humans