Like a petulant child who doesn’t get its way north korea likes to throw tantrums a few days ago the rogue state reminded the world of this by launching several short-range missiles its first weapons test since president joe biden took office but behind that aggression dictator kim jong-un is in serious trouble his regime is bankrupt it desperately needs cash and it’s willing to do almost anything to get it even selling weapons and drugs on the black market now though they’ve been exposed by the unlikely combination of a hidden camera
sting and a heartbroken family hell-bent on justice time is slowly healing the raw grief of cindy warmbier this is it it’s a cool day but the gaping hole left in her family will never be filled [Music] we wrote son brother and friend and that was just him everyone loved him absolutely everybody that met otto loved him it’s such a big loss otto warmbier was the american student who became a porn in a game of international brinkmanship captured held and ultimately killed by a regime that his parents fred and cindy view as pure evil
all i can say is otto was treated just like they treat the people he was a bargaining chip he was put in a brain dead condition from torture and they did nothing a year and three months later they released him and he it was horrendous tonight the warmbier’s brave mission to hold north korea accountable for the death of their son we’re not afraid we don’t have fear of north korea we know they’re they’re just criminals as hidden cameras expose what the world is long suspected kim jong-un’s desperate hermit kingdom
will do anything for a dollar weapons we can build submarines factory we can bring time factories missiles all made indipiakis a clandestine network selling weapons and drugs around the world to anyone willing to pay is north korea’s only ticket to survival at the moment sanction busting yes essentially north korea is a criminal record that is how the regime makes its money you know that you must have people that you can fully trust because if only one goes to the cia only one you are fine and the weapons trade isn’t just
happening overseas one of north korea’s loyal agents has been caught red-handed right here in australia the north koreans are horrible people the regime is horrible disgusting human beings criminals thugs there it’s a criminal enterprise in a concentration camp [Music] otto warmbier grew up in the sleepy suburbs of cincinnati [Music] so proud tall and athletic he excelled at sport and studied business at an elite university this is our last day together as wyoming high school’s class of 2013.
tomorrow morning we will all belong to another class another job or another city to his mum and dad he was the perfect son how proud were you of otto i i was really pr you know it’s a firstborn what can i say everyone knows you have a special bond with the firstborn he was a standout at the end of 2015 otto had some spare time before taking up an internship on wall street so with the suggestion of one of his university professors a 21 year old booked a five-day trip with a tour group to the world’s most secretive state
what do you think the world needs to know about north korea it’s the scariest place in the world canadian sarah mclaughlin is a teacher but for five days in pyongyang she was one of otto warmbier’s closest travel buddies she’s never revealed the inside story of that trip until now the details inked in her journal we left saturday morning and otto was held back still trying to figure out why ready all right ready to throw it at me [Music] this is the last footage taken of otto before he was plunged into a nightmare
looking back i definitely think that there was a plan and he was a part of it as the group was boarding its plane home otto found himself at the back of the line suddenly he was seized by guards and marched off we were trying to protest and not get on the plane yet to wait for otto and there was about three of us and uh the officers with with machine guns made us get on the plane i guess if a guy with a gun tells you you’ve got to get on the plane there’s no arguing i’ve never experienced fear like that before everybody on the plane
was just completely silent nobody wanted to leave and we had no choice north korea accused otto of trying to steal a propaganda poster from a restricted area at his hotel charged with subversion he was hauled before the cameras to make what his parents insist was a staged confession on the early morning of january 1st 2016 i committed my crime in hindsight it’s tragic what my son went through it’s tragic he was used as a political pawn a hostage everybody knows it it’s absurd to think anything different i entirely beg you people and government
of the dpr korea for your forgiveness please i have made the worst mistake of my life the north korean regime showed no mercy two weeks after his confession otto warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour vanished into north korea’s notorious prison system he had been brutalized by them mentally physically emotionally and spiritually and when that guard pushed otto out of the door think about when that door’s shut and he’s alone with those bastards think about that that’s what i’m haunted by the only proof the north koreans had of
otto’s crime was this grainy and inconclusive surveillance footage it’s from a security camera at his hotel and you can see the time stamp clearly 1 57 am on new year’s day but according to others on the tour otto wasn’t even at the hotel at that time so this shadowy figure simply can’t be him that vision has a time stamp on it your group had been out at a new year’s eve party in the hours before that were you even back at the hotel then no the time didn’t match up at all [Music] i remember getting back to the hotel
somewhere around 3am not at all before 2am so that’s not even close to 2am you’re saying it was more than an hour after that video was supposedly shot that you and otto returned to the hotel correct everything about the whole story was fabricated in my opinion fred and cindy warmbier say their son was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time they’re convinced his arrest was a carefully calibrated act linked directly to north korea’s weapons program that’s when north korea started firing off missiles nuclear weapons and using otto is kind
of like their i don’t know what you would call it their prize their american prize to rub it in america’s face what they were doing just a few days after otto was seized north korea carried out its first nuclear test in three years followed by the launch of a long-range missile tensions with the rest of the world were suddenly at an all-time high and otto became pyongyang’s human shield against any international backlash north korea doesn’t do anything by mistake it was their fourth nuclear weapons test and they had a lot of things they wanted
to cover and they felt like otto was going to provide them the security they needed to get away with these things following the tests the united nations imposed the toughest sanctions in history prohibiting trade in everything from weapons through to luxury goods but as you’ll see north korea has been circumventing the embargo through a secret web of helpers and enablers it’s a network that’s now been infiltrated and exposed in the most spectacular way by the most unlikely of people it’s 10 years undercover which i can’t
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recommend to anybody but i did it and i’m proud of it now is an unemployed chef living in denmark but for 10 years he was the mole an amateur spy who tunnelled his way deep inside the north korean regime would you ever in your wildest dreams have thought that you’d become some sort of secret double agent exposing international arms races not at all when i was a kid i was always wanted to be james bond but i was never expecting that to happen in real life ulrich’s undercover mission began when he joined his local branch of the korean
friendship association or kfa a fringe group of fanatical supporters of the kim dynasty determined to expose the group’s inner workings he joined forces with maverick danish documentary maker mads brugger and became the mole when ulrich came to you and said that he wanted to work on this in your heart of hearts did you kind of think this guy’s wasting his time and mine well frankly yes initially i had no idea where this would lead what lay in weight was a spy thriller beyond their wildest dreams a shady world of arm stealing and sanctions busting all
captured on camera alexander good to see you again i’m very pleased to be here always you know over the course of three years ulrich filmed everything as he became a trusted lieutenant of kfa founder and president alejandro carl de benos a spaniard known as the gatekeeper to north korea who boasts of high-level links right up to kim jong-un if north korea is attacked nuclearly by the united states the world will end as we know it alejandro is well known to 60 minutes in the country they are our parents the parents of the nation and the
parents of our ideology he was our guide when we visited the reclusive state in 2015 [Music] with his military uniform and unwavering loyalty to the world’s most brutal dictator he’s always been a baffling character but to mads brugger he became something far more sinister is alejandro caldebenos in your mind someone who’s trustworthy he in my mind is a criminal and should be dealt with as a criminal alejandro wants to help north korea make money so he asks ulrich if he knows anyone who’d like to invest in the country
it’s the perfect chance for the mole to expose how they do their dodgy deals he brings in an actor to play the role of mr james a mysterious billionaire investor and hidden cameras are rolling as they meet with alejandro carl de venos it became very clear that alejandro wanted to open doors to you to a very dark world yeah well he wanted to sell weapons to us through the north koreans and met amphetamine we are on under very very heavy sanctions as you may know from the united nations so we have a parallel way to do things
we are developing things in a pharmaceutical industry that are forbidden in any other country in the world it’s basically the same like methamphetamine it’s a methamphetamine for the drug market weapons actually is our main but the problem is weapons in the moment that the u is is very very subject but weapons we can build submarines factories we can bring time factories missiles all meeting dprk just said you know i can facilitate you all kind of contacts directly with or state companies or any department or ministry in the country
when i saw that i thought you know this is remarkable but can it be true or is alando simply bragging and lo and behold everything elrando has promised [Music] you know happens at alejandro’s insistence ulrich and his phony investor fly to north korea where they’re led into a basement on the outskirts of pyongyang ulrich is terrified that his undercover ruse is up that’s surely the moment where you start to wonder is this the end for me yeah i was really scared but incredibly they find themselves in the bowels of an arms factory where its president
is ready to make a deal it’s almost unbelievable to watch it unfold but clearly this is how the north koreans do business suddenly they just put out this whole menu of weapon and weapon systems and i was just walking around with my camera and was like whoa this is this is not happening what was on there well it was a scot missiles uh thermobaric missiles hand weapons tanks really big missiles and well practically everything you wish from weapons to start a war you could buy as you discover the north koreans are willing to sell
quite sophisticated and extremely dangerous weapon systems to basically anybody even private persons and you have to ask yourself what happens when the real mr james comes to pyongyang while the mole and his investor were striking their weapons deal little did they know that american student otto warmbier was being held just a few kilometers away the worst part is when we were driving around pyongyang and being treated like kings um otto was in a basement somewhere getting tortured it makes me sad to to think about what happened to
otto and what could have happened to me for 15 traumatic months otto’s parents fred and cindy were in the dark about the welfare of their son they were told not to make a noise not to upset the regime for fear they could jeopardize otto’s safety it was really hard going through this with the family stuffing our feelings and not being able to deal with anything that whole time we were told he was in perfect health by the north koreans by the cia by our state department that he’s in perfect health he’s working at a camp
all their intelligence tells them that if he was begging for help we’ll never know through those dark days the warmbiers never lost hope that their son would make it back to safety hang in there tiger boy you’re coming home and not to worry about us but stay strong stay strong and we’ll be fine as a family as soon as you get home but even in their worst nightmares they could never have imagined the circumstances in which he did at the president’s direction the department of state has secured the release of otto warmbier from north korea
he is on his way enroute home to be reunited with his family [Music] fred and cindy discovered that for 15 of the months their son had spent in captivity he’d been in a coma with a catastrophic brain injury he arrived home blind deaf jerking violently and howling we saw evil in his eyes he had seen just terrible things and he had been reduced to this animalistic creature that i couldn’t hug and i couldn’t get a feeling back from and and it it’s just it was horrible but i’ll tell you what it does it’s a motivator
because you go through that and you say otto i’m i’m here for you and you made it home and we’re gonna do we’re not gonna get let these people get away with what they did to you period but it was horrible it was just horrible otto would never be able to tell his side of the story he died just six days later since then his parents have made it their mission to expose the evil of north korea to the world the easy thing would be for me to let north korea continue terrorizing me by remaining quiet and doing nothing that would be the easy
thing but i’m determined for his life to have a huge impact on the world you might think the north korean threat is some other country’s problem but as you’ll see they’ve been busted trying to do deals right here in australia has spent years secretly filming alejandro carl de benos welcome to the bunker thank you exposing his clandestine work cutting deals for north korea the idea is to make the um met amphetamine and what weapons but at one of their final meetings when talking about the business do never use again that words okay
oryx mission almost comes unstuck alejandro is spooked and pulls out a bug detector if you have a micro or something in you okay you will make the signal okay is panicking but manages some quick thinking to cover his tracks i had a car key uh i rented a car and i had that in a small bag on the table and uh i tried to get his focus to that bag and and he bought it this is my remote control okay so it was sending the signal i sweep it many times we don’t have anything please the rig is colder size personally i would have fallen on my knees
and begin you know screaming please don’t kill me documentary maker mads brugger says alejandro’s paranoia is understandable he is a coordinating sanctions busting he is coordinating buying and selling of arms producing drugs and so on so he is in my mind a criminal and they should not be trusted in any way [Music] north korea has dismissed the mole as a total fabrication but there’s no doubt it’s shot a light on a shady and disturbing world given the extraordinary revelations you might think alejandro caldebenos would
be a little camera shy alejandro are you happy to start yeah but when we asked for an interview he was more than willing to oblige i don’t care what others say if i care about what other people said i will not be sitting here right now and soon the conversation turns to north korea’s desperate financial plight when it comes to these international sanctions how damaging have they been for north korea’s economy dbrk is the most sanctioned country in the world so we could say that things are more difficult to import
things are more difficult to export but they still find a way and when we turned to his own starring role in the mole he insisted the documentary makers were the ones being tricked you’ve been heavily implicated in international deals for for weapons and drugs were you embarrassed to see that footage come out no there’s some people that wanted to frame us and what we did which was actually to frame them what do you mean by that i will not give more publicity to the rubbish but i said we had a plan but it doesn’t look good i
mean you’re there discussing weapons you’re there discussing drugs you’re boasting about how you can cut deals with kim jong-un’s men that was not why i was coming here for the interview i thank you very much and see you another time i can see you there what’s your objection here we just want to get your response alejandro has left the building yeah alejandra has responded to your documentary and said he actually laid a trap for you and your crew yes it’s so very interesting essentially i think if alejandro was you know playing along and he knew
that we were filming him in secret that would make my documentary even more interesting do you think you’ve destroyed his business model now i hope so but north korea’s criminal network spreads across the globe including right here in australia [Music] amidst the skyscrapers and suits of sydney cbd this is a very unexpected site a passionate group of north korean sympathisers spooking the apparent achievements of kim jong-un’s regime you see the capitalist regime knows that their efforts to wage their cold war drive
against north korea but there’s another man they’re here to support as well his name is chan han choi a north korean loyalist and it’s the first day of a trial for him at the new south wales supreme court they are the only reason why the australian regime finally had to give choi bail last november the lighthearted nature of the rally outside court belies the seriousness of the charges the 62 year old is facing accused of violating united nations sanctions by brokering the sale of missiles and petroleum on behalf of
pyongyang [Music] it’s quite extraordinary to think that such an elaborate international operation was coordinated from this humble apartment complex at eastwood in suburban sydney but it’s from here that police first alleged choi was working as a middleman on deals for weapons of mass destruction and selling petrol from iran to north korea they even claimed that choi would boast to his contacts that he had connections all the way up to kim jong-un himself want everyone more right to go now look thanks everybody for coming
look today i’m going to give some details in relation to an afp cyber crime operation investigation that occurred here in sydney which has exposed serious breaches of both domestic and international law chan han choi was arrested in an afp raid on his home in 2017. this man was a loyal agent of north korea believing he was acting to serve some higher patriotic purpose i think at the end of the day he would sell whatever he could to to make money back for the north korean government the accused was initially locked up at
long bay prison from where he continued to phone his fellow north korea supporters rallying the cause and denouncing international laws i strongly believe that the united nations economic sanctions in moscow on north korea are both on just and compare the trial for the unassuming korean began earlier this year but after several days of evidence he ended up pleading guilty to charges of contravening un sanctions by brokering the sale of arms and petrol on behalf of north korea he’s now facing up to 10 years behind
bars i’m proud of australia the way you change north korea’s behavior is you challenge them under the rule of law they’re committing illegal acts and we know this and our government knows it but they should help be held responsible [Music] since the death of their son otto fred and cindy warmbier have been on their own mission to tighten the screws on north korea and the regime’s enablers abroad their pressure has led the us to declare north korea a state sponsor of terror and there have been other successes in shutting down
the money trail that props up kim jong-un’s regime thank you for asking us to speak because it’s five years since i saw otto since since and and nobody’s forgotten him still and i just want to tell north korea as long as i’m alive no one’s going to forget what you did to otto i’m not going to let them i’m not going away and i’m in it for the long the long haul i’m just patiently waiting because the day is going to come when that regime is over and i won’t be happy then there’s there’s nothing that can make me happy
but i’ll be relieved [Music] you’re both very proud parents but i must say i think otto would be very proud of both of you no more so than i am of him [Music] they murdered otto they murdered him they murder people every day and that’s why i say how can i be quiet you know otto would be he’d be like mom i don’t want you to do this if it’s gonna hurt you and it’s not hurting me it’s not hurting me it’s helping me hello i’m tom steinfert thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand
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The Mole Who Infiltrated Pyongyang: Secret Cameras Reveal a Global Web of Illegal Arms Trade
Article:
The Shadowy World of the Hermit Kingdom
In the cold, clinical halls of international diplomacy, North Korea is often characterized by the rhythmic, petulant beat of missile tests and diplomatic tantrums. It is a nation that functions less like a modern state and more like a crumbling, desperate criminal enterprise. Behind the facade of parades and the iron-fisted rhetoric of Kim Jong-un, the regime is hollowed out by economic desperation. It is a state that, when backed into a corner, turns to the illicit trade of death and destruction to keep its coffers filled. But for years, this reality was shielded by secrecy and the fear that keeps the world at bay. Now, the mask has finally slipped, pulled away by a confluence of a heartbroken family seeking justice and an unlikely spy who walked into the heart of the darkness.
This is not merely a story of geopolitics; it is a story of a young life cut short and a world that turned a blind eye for far too long. At the center of this narrative is Otto Warmbier, a bright, athletic American student whose only “crime” was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To understand the true cost of North Korea’s survival, one must look at the path that led Otto from a quiet Cincinnati suburb to the brutal, unforgiving basement of a Pyongyang prison.
The Pawn in the Game
To those who knew him, Otto Warmbier was the embodiment of potential. A standout student, a beloved son, and a young man with a future that spanned across the globe. In late 2015, fueled by the adventurous spirit of a 21-year-old, he signed up for a tour of North Korea—a trip suggested by a professor, marketed as a safe, controlled way to glimpse the world’s most secretive nation. But the reality was far more sinister.
As his fellow travelers recall, the atmosphere in North Korea was thick with a paranoia that transcended the standard tourist experience. Then came the turning point: as the tour group prepared to depart, Otto was pulled from the line by armed guards. His friends watched in helpless horror as he was marched away, a hostage in a game of brinkmanship that he never understood. The regime accused him of stealing a propaganda poster, a claim that was as flimsy as the grainy, timestamped surveillance footage they presented as “evidence.” Those who were with him that night know the truth: the timeline provided by the regime was a fabrication, a staged performance meant to provide a pretext for his capture.
Otto was, by every measure, a political pawn. His detention coincided precisely with North Korea’s push for nuclear testing and long-range missile development. He was the human shield, the “American prize” used to insulate the regime from international backlash. For 15 months, his parents, Fred and Cindy, were kept in a state of suspended agony, told their son was in “perfect health” while he was suffering in conditions that are impossible to fathom.
The Question of Conscience
It is easy to view these events through the lens of history, but they are visceral and present. When we learn of the torture, the forced labor, and the eventual, tragic return of Otto in a state of vegetative decay—blind, deaf, and broken—the question arises: What would you have done in this situation? If you knew the immense power of a nuclear-armed state was arrayed against your child, would you have stayed silent, or would you have fought back, even if it meant risking everything?
The Warmbiers chose to fight. They realized that silence only emboldens a regime built on cruelty. Their struggle brought them face-to-face with the ugly machinery that sustains the Kim dynasty. But they were not fighting this war alone. Across the globe, another man—a former chef turned unlikely spy—was starting a mission that would unravel the very foundations of the regime’s revenue streams.
The Mole in the Bunker
Ulrich, a Danish man who dreamt of being James Bond, spent ten years infiltrating the Korean Friendship Association (KFA). Together with filmmaker Mads Brügger, he embedded himself deep within the inner circles of the regime’s most devoted enablers, including the infamous Alejandro Cao de Benos, a self-appointed “gatekeeper” who brokered deals for the North Korean state.
The footage they captured is nothing short of breathtaking. It exposes a world where international sanctions are treated as mere inconveniences to be sidestepped. Alejandro bragged openly about the regime’s capabilities: submarines, missile systems, pharmaceutical factories for methamphetamine, and high-level access to government ministries. They were willing to sell anything, to anyone, provided the price was right.
During these meetings, while the “mole” and his fake billionaire investor toured secret arms factories, Otto Warmbier was suffering in a basement only a few kilometers away. The juxtaposition is a haunting indictment of the criminal nature of the North Korean state—a regime that treats human life as disposable inventory while shopping for its next illicit deal.
The Global Reach of the Crime
This wasn’t happening in some far-off, isolated corner of the world. It was happening in plain sight, even in countries like Australia. The arrest of Chan Han Choi in Sydney provided a shocking look at how deeply the regime’s tentacles reach. Operating out of a suburban apartment, Choi served as a middleman for missiles and petroleum, acting as a crucial cog in the machine that funds Pyongyang’s military ambitions.
The trial of Choi, and the persistent pressure from families like the Warmbiers, represents a new era of accountability. It shows that the international community, through the rule of law and relentless investigation, can strike back at the criminal network that keeps the regime afloat. The goal is simple: to choke the money trail that props up a concentration camp masquerading as a nation.
A Legacy of Justice
Fred and Cindy Warmbier have transformed their grief into a force of nature. They have successfully pressured governments to label North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, and they have become the moral compass for a world that often forgets the victims of distant tyrannies. Otto is gone, but his life continues to have an impact. His parents refuse to let the world move on, refuse to let the regime normalize its atrocities, and refuse to be silenced.
They are waiting for the day the regime falls, knowing that no amount of victory will bring their son back, but believing that a life stolen must eventually lead to a reckoning. They stand as a testament to the idea that even in the face of absolute evil, individuals can make a difference.
The Final Reckoning
As we look at the trajectory of the North Korean regime, one must wonder: what is the ultimate price of survival? For the Kim dynasty, it is the sacrifice of its own people and the moral bankruptcy of its leadership. For the rest of the world, it is the constant vigilance required to ensure that such crimes are documented, exposed, and punished.
The story of the mole, the tragic loss of Otto, and the dismantling of illicit networks in cities like Sydney are all threads of the same tapestry. It is a story of how an isolated, broken state survives on the periphery of the global order, and how the light of truth is the only weapon that can truly disarm it.
We are left with a sobering reality: that the fight against such regimes is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires the dedication of those who refuse to forget, the bravery of those who go undercover, and the collective voice of a global public that demands more than just empty promises.
The regime counts on our apathy. They count on the fact that we have short memories and that the complexity of international sanctions will cause us to lose interest. They rely on the idea that the “hermit kingdom” can remain just that—a place where the rules do not apply and where justice is a concept left at the border.
But the evidence captured in the shadows, the voices raised in protest, and the relentless pressure from families who have lost everything are proving that they are wrong. The world is watching, and for the first time, the walls are beginning to crack.
As you look at these revelations, as you contemplate the vast, dark network that spans from the heart of Pyongyang to the suburbs of our own cities, you have to ask yourself what comes next. How much longer will we allow this to continue? The answer lies not just in the halls of power, but in the awareness and the actions of every person who decides that they will not turn a blind eye to the truth.
Otto Warmbier’s life was taken, but his story has become a beacon. It has exposed a criminal state for what it is, and it has set in motion a movement that demands justice. It is a reminder that no regime is untouchable, no secret is permanent, and that the cost of freedom is a constant, unyielding commitment to the truth.
The journey to hold such a power accountable is fraught with danger, but it is necessary. It is a fight for the future of those who are currently suffering under the boot of a dictator, and it is a fight for the integrity of a global system that should never have allowed such a state to thrive in the dark.
We are all connected by the information we consume and the causes we support. The question remains: will we be the generation that finally demands the end of this systemic cruelty, or will we let it drift back into the shadows? The choice, in many ways, is ours to make. We must keep the conversation alive. We must keep asking the hard questions. We must keep demanding that those in power take the steps necessary to dismantle the illicit networks that sustain the regime.
The fight is not over, and it will not be easy. It requires courage, persistence, and a refusal to accept the status quo. But looking back at the resolve of those who have paved the way, we can see that change is possible. It starts with a single voice, a single document, a single moment of clarity. It starts with us.
As we look toward the future, let us ensure that the memory of those who have been sacrificed is not in vain. Let us ensure that the truth continues to shine a light into the darkest corners of our world. The story is far from finished, and the next chapter is ours to write. What steps will you take to ensure that justice is not just a dream, but a reality for all? Join the conversation below and let your voice be heard.
The world is watching, and it is time for the truth to prevail. We cannot afford to look away again. The fight for justice, for human rights, and for the truth is the most important battle of our time. Will you stand on the right side of it?
Share this story, keep the discussion alive, and never forget that justice, no matter how long it takes, is a goal worth fighting for.
