Ex-Marine faces jail for attack on North Korean embassy in Spain
The North Korean embassy in Madrid was attacked in February 2019 by a group including former US Navy Christopher Ahn.
© Manu Fernandez / AP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
A former US Navy is under judicial surveillance for helping North Koreans leave their home countries.
Christopher Ahn, descendant of Korean risks extradition to Spain, where he faces a sentence of twenty years in prison.
This convict unlike any other has recently expressed himself in various media.
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With our correspondent in Seoul,
Nicolas Rocca
His life changed in 2009, when he met a certain Adrian Hong, political activist and creator of the association for freedom in North Korea and then of the
Free Joseon
group
(
free Joseon
in French), named after a dynasty. Korean. A political association whose objective is to seize power from the Kim regime. These activists, mostly defectors from North Korea, are implicated in the defection of many North Korean citizens.
Christopher Ahn, the former Marines thus participated in the departure of Kim Jong-un's nephew, Kim Han Sol.
The son of Kim Jong-un's brother felt unsafe in Asia after the assassination of his father Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017. At present, it is not clear where exactly Kim Han Sol has been since leaving Taipei for Amsterdam.
The attack on the North Korean embassy in Spain
But it is above all for the
mysterious attack on the North Korean embassy
in Spain that Christopher Ahn knows his legal troubles.
In February 2019, a few days before a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, nine attackers entered the building in the Spanish capital.
Among them, Christopher Ahn.
►Also read: Interview - Photograph: “UnPerson” or the departure from North Korea
Some are equipped with dummy weapons, knives, air pistols and metal bars.
They tie up eight diplomats, but a North Korean employee manages to notify the police.
The men leave with the embassy cars and computer equipment that some, including the sulphurous Adrien Hong, will then bring back to the United States and forward to the FBI.
Christopher Ahn assures his side that this attack was a set-up which aimed to allow diplomats to defect without endangering their families who remained in North Korea.
According to
El Pais
, among the participants of this martially prepared attack, two would have links with the American secret services.
Arrest warrant issued by Spain
Spain issued an arrest warrant because under international law it was their responsibility to secure the embassy.
Adrian Hong was not caught, but he is now reportedly wanted by North Korea, Spain and the United States.
But Christopher Ahn was arrested in 2019 and after three months in prison he was released on bail with an electronic bracelet he still wears.
The US justice department is studying the possibility of extradition to Spain, where he faces 21 years in prison for participating in a criminal organization.
He also says he fears for his life if he is extradited, because Spain and North Korea have diplomatic ties and he could be the target of North Korean killers.
To see if the United States wishes to continue with this procedure.
►Also read: A North Korean manages to swim to the South
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