Anti-Kim Jong-un group claims raid on NK embassy in Spain

Seen above is the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain. Reuters-Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

Free Joseon, a political organization opposing North Korea's Kim Jong-un regime, claimed responsibility for a recent raid on the North Korean Embassy in the Spanish capital of Madrid in a statement Tuesday.

The incident took place last month when a group of unidentified men broke into the embassy and stole computers from it.

"We responded to an urgent situation in the Madrid Embassy," the organization, previously known as Cheollima Civil Defense, said on its website.

But the group denied allegations that "armed intruders" attacked the embassy.

"We were invited into the embassy, and contrary to reports, no one was gagged or beaten," it said. "Out of respect for the host nation of Spain, no weapons were used."

Free Joseon is a secretive organization that has vowed to overthrow Kim's regime. Since its establishment in March 2017, it has engaged in a series of clandestine anti-Pyongyang activities.

The raid occurred Feb. 22, a few days before the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi. For this reason, there was speculations that the U.S. government was behind the raid with a view to seizing confidential documents before the summit.

But the organization claimed this was far from the truth.

"The Hanoi summit had no relation to this operation," Free Joseon said. "We recognize and apologize for any inconvenience caused to the authorities of Spain, who were caught in the middle of a difficult situation."

But the group acknowledged that it shared some information acquired from the embassy with the U.S. FBI, hours after the incident.

"The organization shared certain information of enormous potential value with the FBI in the U.S., under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality," it said. "This information was shared voluntarily and at its request. Now the terms appear to have been broken."

Washington, however, denied the claim, saying it was not involved in the incident at all.

"The U.S. government had nothing to do with this," Robert Palladino, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in a regular briefing Tuesday.

Given the contradictory statements, it will take some time to confirm who exactly masterminded the raid.

The anti-North Korea group argued there were no third parties involved in the incident.

"There were no other governments involved with, or aware of, our activity until after the incident," it said.

Free Joseon was relatively obscure until 2017 when it claimed to be protecting Kim Han-sol, the son of Kim Jong-nam who was assassinated in Malaysia. The North Korean regime has repeatedly stated it was not behind the assassination.

But with other claiming the regime apparently masterminding the plot to murder the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, there were some calls to offer protection for Kim Jong-nam's surviving family members.

The organization has stated that it has been protecting Kim Han-sol since 2017, also releasing video footage of an interview with him.

It also said in the statement that it would continue to fight the regime.

"Our fight is only against the regime's practices and is on behalf of millions of our enslaved people," it said. "Our intention is not to interfere with the political intentions of certain countries that are seeking a resolution to certain disagreements."

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