A look at alleged raiders of North Korean Embassy in Madrid
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The 10 people who allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.
The leader of the alleged intruders appears to be a Yale-educated human rights activist who was once jailed in China while trying to rescue North Korean defectors living in hiding, according to activists and defectors.
Details have begun trickling out about the raid after a Spanish judge lifted a secrecy order Tuesday and said an investigation of what happened on Feb. 22 uncovered evidence that “a criminal organization” shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. A U.S. official said the group is named Cheollima Civil Defense, a little-known organization that recently called for international solidarity in the fight against dictatorship in North Korea.
Here’s a look at the intruders and the Cheollima group.
Details about the creation of the Cheollima Civil Defense group are hazy. The word “Cheollima” — spelled “Chollima” in the North — refers to a mythical winged horse that the government often uses in its propaganda.
In a statement posted on its website on Thursday, the group said it has “temporarily suspended” its activities because of what it described as an “attack of various speculative articles by the media.” The group said it consists of North Korean defectors living in countries around the world, but that it has not worked with or contacted defectors “living under tight security” in South Korea.
“We ask the media to restrain their interest about the truth of our organization or its members. There are bigger things ahead of us,” Cheollima said in a statement written in Korean. “We are an international organization unified by determination to cut off the dynastic power of the Kim family.”
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