New documentary reveals how North Korea circumvents sanctions - to sell weapons

Thanks to a prematurely retired Danish chef, an ex-criminal fake businessman and a documentary maker who has already been ported from North Korea, the documentary Mullvaden - Undercover in North Korea by Mads Brügger provides a unique insight into the dictatorship's hidden arms trade.

SVT's Documents from outside is one of the co-producers.  

For over ten years, Ulrich Larsen has acted as a mole in North Korean circles.

He started as a member of the Danish North Korean Friendship Association, advanced in rank and eventually led his own Scandinavian branch of KFA, the International Friendship Association. 

Would build a secret weapons factory 

Through his work, he came close to KFA's chairman, the Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Benós, who has exclusive paths into the dictatorship.

Larsen was encouraged by Cao de Benós to find businessmen willing to invest in the country despite all the harsh international sanctions.  

With the help of the former criminal Dane Mr James in the role of a businessman in search of big money, the documentary team managed to get as far as becoming speculators on their own island in Uganda, where they would build an underground weapons factory with North Korean drawings, products and labor. . 

The drawings were received by the mole Ulrich Larsen at the North Korean embassy in Stockholm.  

Hidden camera has been used but many meetings are also recorded openly, as Larsen pretended that the purpose was to create films on behalf of KFA.

In several of the conversations, different parties explain in detail how to proceed to circumvent international rules. 

Offered long-distance robots - on the "weapons menu" 

In a meeting in North Korea with the head of a weapons factory, the team was given a kind of "menu" of various weapons that could be bought.

The most expensive were scudrobots, which cost upwards of 5.5 million dollars each.  

They were also part of a triangle trade plan with a Jordanian businessman who wanted to sell oil to North Korea.

Everything was orchestrated by representatives of the dictatorship.  

KFA's chairman Alejandro Cao de Benós today does not want to comment on his actions in the documentary in any interview, but says that he lied and exaggerated when it comes to illegal business.  

SVT has been in contact with the North Korean embassy in Stockholm, which says that they do not know anything about the accusations. 

The entire documentary can be watched on SVT Play.