Contract killings, drug trafficking, cyber attacks: Former North Korean secret service operator in an interview with the BBC

The BBC conducted an exclusive interview with a former senior North Korean secret service official.

The public broadcaster emphasizes that the statements of the man named Kim Kuk Song cannot be independently verified, but his identity has been verified and - where possible - confirmatory evidence has been found for his claims.

In the interview, Kim tells how the North Korean leadership is trying by all means to make money, from drug trafficking to arms sales in the Middle East and Africa.

He talks about the strategy behind the decisions in Pyongyang, the regime's attacks on South Korea and the espionage and cyber networks in North Korea.

Kim describes himself as one of the "redest of the reds".

He was a loyal communist servant, but rank and loyalty are no guarantee of their safety in North Korea.

Mr. Kim, as he is called in the interview, feared for his life in 2014 and had to flee.

Since then he has lived in Seoul and worked for the South Korean secret service.

Assassination of a defector for Kim Jong Un

According to himself, Mr. Kim has personally planned an assassination attempt on a former North Korean official on the orders of dictator Kim Jong Un.

“A 'terrorist squad' has been formed to secretly murder Hwang Jang Yop.

I personally directed and carried out the work. ”Hwang Jang Yop was a high-ranking official in North Korea before defiling to South Korea in 1997.

A year later, in 2010, the South Korean naval ship Cheonan sank after being hit by a torpedo.

Forty-six people were killed.

Pyongyang has always denied its involvement.

In November of the same year, dozens of North Korean artillery shells hit the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.

Two soldiers and two civilians were killed.

There was much discussion about who had given the order for this attack.

Kim said he was "not directly involved in the Cheonan or Yeonpyeong Island operations," but "they were no secret to the RGB officers, they were treated with pride, something to boast about."

This type of "military work" is planned and carried out on special orders from Kim Jong Un, said Mr. Kim.

According to Kim, the former North Korean head of state Kim Jong Il ordered new employees to be trained as early as the 1980s "to prepare for cyber warfare."

For this purpose, the most promising students from North Korea's universities have been recruited every year.

In the 1990s, Kim said he was given the task of raising "revolutionary funds" for the Supreme Leader.

In his opinion, this included trafficking in illegal drugs.

"After I was entrusted with the task, I brought three people from abroad to North Korea, set up a production base in the training center of Liaison Office 715 of the Labor Party and manufactured drugs," he says in the interview.

The crystal meth produced would then have been exchanged for dollars and presented to Kim Jong Il.

North Korea also sold illegal weapons, including to Iran and countries in which civil wars were raging.

Escape out of fear for his life

After Kim Jong Un decided in December to have his own uncle Jang Song Thaek executed, Mr. Kim also feared an attack on his life and fled to the south with his family.

When asked why he decided to talk about all this now of all times, he replies: “It's the only job I can do.

From now on I will do more to free my brothers in the north from the clutches of dictatorship and to give them true freedom. "

"North Korea's political society, its judgment, its thought processes - they all follow the belief that ultimate obedience to the Supreme Leader is obeyed," he says.

Such a "loyal heart" arises over generations.

The BBC has asked the North Korean Embassy in London and the Representation in New York for comments, but has not yet received a response.

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