Original subtitles

It began when an unknown man from Denmark approached me

with a proposition.

This is him in his tiny apartment in the outskirts of Copenhagen.

If this was a piece of fiction,

no-one would believe that he would be meeting

with North Korean arms dealers in Africa...

You can walk in here no problem.

..or going to the North Korean embassy in Sweden

to pick up secret documents.

If something happened, embassy does know nothing about this.

Exactly.

But this is no fiction.

Everything you are about to see is real,

and has been going on for more than ten years.

This is him aged 14, somewhere in Denmark.

He is celebrating his birthday.

Among the guests are children who grew up

in the communist dictatorship East Germany.

Many years later, as a grown man, he will claim that

befriending these kids and learning about the horrors

of a totalitarian regime made him decide to infiltrate and expose

the most brutal dictatorship of all...

..North Korea.

It's a nice explanation, but exactly why he chose to place himself

in mortal danger is also beside the point.

What only matters here is that he is a mole.

In the end, I had to hire an expert to help me sort it out.

Annie Machon is a contentious figure in the intelligence world,

but this does not concern me.

I am only interested in her skills in debriefing agents.

So, Annie, the mole arrived last night?

Mm-hm. And soon he's ready for you?

Do you have concerns?

Maybe...we should discuss that after you have met the mole.

Hi, Ulrich. I'm Annie.

Hi, Annie. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Thank you.

I used to work for the British Security Service,

otherwise known as MI5, and part of my job as an intelligence officer

was to debrief agents.

So the film team has asked me in to debrief you

about your life over the last ten years.

Yes.

Can you tell me a little bit more about him? His background?

Erm, you know, if he would rob a bank,

you would not be able to describe him.

Mm-hm. Erm...

He blends in. He blends in. Perfect.

So, how did you get interested in North Korea?

Oh, it's a long story.

It is a long story, so I will speed it up.

Back in 2006, as a journalist from Denmark, I went to North Korea

and shot a documentary called The Red Chapel.

The regime in Pyongyang really hated my film,

and because of that, I can never travel back to North Korea.

Seen from a western point of view, the film has its moments,

but it does not offer up the smoking gun,

the irrefutable proof that North Korea is an evil

and criminal enterprise.

Ever since, I have been on a quest to prove these points,

yet being forever banned from the Chamber of Secrets.

But back in Denmark, the man who I prefer to call the mole saw my film,

and somehow it gave him the idea that he could travel

to North Korea in my place.

Approximately ten years ago, out of nowhere, he wrote and asked

if I would be interested in doing a film about him

infiltrating the Danish North Korean Friendship Association.

So... I mean, what happened?

Can you talk me through exactly the first steps you took in this,

and the sort of thought process you were going through?

I told him it could be of interest if it would evolve to something

of international importance,

because the Danish North Korean Friendship Association in itself

is a fairly depressing group of people. Mm-hm.

He said, "Please keep me posted if it's interesting,"

and I was like, "OK."

I also told him, "I will never be able to pay you any money,"

so that is not of importance for him,

and then he just kept on going.

The mole went down the rabbit hole and discovered a bizarre world

of Danish senior citizens who are true friends of North Korea.

MAN SPEAKS DANISH

Slowly but surely, the mole advanced in the hierarchy

and became a member of the board,

working under chairman Anders Kristensen,

a die-hard communist.

Here you have him back in his heyday, meeting with

the founder of North Korea, Eternal President Kim Il-sung,

grandfather of the current ruler, Kim Jong-un.

All the time, the mole was filming, the excuse being that he was

making movies for YouTube about his work as a board member.

So, how did things progress for you once you were a member,

and on the board?

The mole went to North Korea,

and the North Koreans took a liking to him.

His main contact person in North Korea was a man named Kang,

who works for the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

Kang is a key person in this tale of deceit and intrigue.

Everywhere he went in North Korea, the mole was filming.

Of course, he also brought his camera when he was awarded a medal,

recognising his work for the regime.

OK, congratulations. Thank you.

So when did things really start to move?

Could you confirm that this is a photograph of him?

Amongst the friends of the regime in Pyongyang,

Alejandro Cao de Benos is the biggest friend.

Compared to a small group

such as the Danish North Korean Friendship Association,

the Korean Friendship Association is the international lodge

for people who consider North Korea to be heaven on Earth.

Alejandro Cao de Benos is the founder

of the Korean Friendship Association

and is known around the world as the gatekeeper of North Korea.

As such, Alejandro Cao de Benos was my tour guide and access ticket

when I travelled to North Korea back in 2006.

Here, we are posing for a North Korean newspaper.

Spending time with him, I found it hard to understand why Alejandro,

who was born in Spain and lives in Spain,

has chosen a life as a cheerleader for North Korea.

According to the UN, North Korea starves, abuses

and kills its own citizens on a daily basis,

but Alejandro Cao de Benos considers all that to be fake news.

I also discovered that his preferred foods are French pastry and candies,

which is, I guess, the perfect diet for a supervillain.

Do you think Alejandro's dangerous?

APPLAUSE

You're a Spanish aristocrat

representing the North Korean regime. What's in it for you?

APPLAUSE

So you meet him in Pyongyang, and then you go back to Europe,

and then your second meeting is when you go to Spain. Yeah.

Can you tell me a little bit about that meeting?

So what did Alejandro want from you?

And so the mole began channelling his way through

the Korean Friendship Association, hoping to find the secrets

of this global club for friends of Pyongyang.

Advised by me, the mole had a professional cameraman

enrolled in KFA Denmark as his personal assistant.

Is Alejandro aware of the personal aspects of your life?

A lot of time because, in his real life, the mole is a retired chef

who lives on welfare subsidies from the government

because of some sort of chronic disease

which prevents him from working.

He is married with children and resides in the suburbs

of Copenhagen, living a seemingly normal life.

As such, he is the best mole you could ever want.

MUSIC PLAYS

That's quite a quick leap up.

So what were your responsibilities in that?

This is Ulrich out of Copenhagen. Here's what he had to say.

So, Andre, he's really picking up on that theme

that Dermot had about a smear against North Korea.

Do you happen to know if he's told his wife what he was doing?

I don't think so. Mm.

What did your wife say when you went home smelling of that strange scent?

Mm-hm.

LINE RINGS

Why does Alejandro like the mole? What does he see in the mole?

Alejandro Cao de Benos begins putting pressure on the mole.

He wants him to source for businessmen who will invest

in North Korea.

So the main part, really, is raising business and investment. Yeah.

In a debriefing filmed in Denmark back in 2013,

the mole was already talking about KFA president Alejandro Cao de Benos

wanting him to find investors.

But investing in North Korea is tricky business

because of the tough UN sanctions

levelled against the cash-starved regime.

NEWSREEL: The new sanctions include a ban on exports of

North Korean goods such as machinery and electrical equipment.

Since no-one in their right mind would throw money at North Korea,

I decided to invent a fake investor in order for the mole to find out

what exactly Alejandro Cao de Benos had in mind.

I forgot to mention there is another person involved in this.

That person is Mr James.

His real name is Jim,

and he was chosen by me to perform the role as Mr James,

a man of international mystery.

In real life, Jim is a former member of the French Foreign Legion

who later went on to become a jetset cocaine pusher in Copenhagen.

In the end, he was caught and served eight years in jail,

and now works and lives as a legitimate businessman.

In my mind, he was tailor-made for extreme role-playing.

So I had the mole invite Alejandro to come to Oslo in Norway

for meeting with the man of his dreams,

Mr James, a dapper Scandinavian oil billionaire.

So how did you set it up?

Mm-hm.

What kind of investments into North Korea

would President Alejandro Cao de Benos have on offer for Mr James?

Go.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Sorry, just to interrupt,

but what sort of cover story had you developed for James?

I mean, Alejandro presumably would have done some checking

on the background of James.

So he didn't need to know the name of this oil billionaire?

Did he discuss what types of business he would be looking for?

Meeting with President Alejandro Cao de Benos in Oslo

gave a whole new perspective on the Korean Friendship Association

because, officially, the KFA is a peaceful organisation

which works to promote North Korean culture, history and values

through its members in more than 30 different countries...

..including the official delegate for all of Scandinavia,

the mole.

Was the KFA really being used

as a front for dealing with weapons and drugs from North Korea,

with Alejandro as the spider in the web?

Or was Alejandro Cao de Benos playing us in order to get to

the deep pockets of Mr James?

And who was Alejandro really?

Simply a buffoonish braggart acting as a useful idiot

for the regime in Pyongyang?

Or was he a highly connected and sophisticated

international criminal?

At last, the mole had found his real mission and true purpose -

follow the lead of Alejandro Cao de Benos

and see where it takes us.

So, what happened after this meeting?

For the first time ever, the brave soldiers of the KFA

would have their annual meeting without their president -

a perfect chance for the mole to rise in the ranks.

PHONE RINGS

Next, the mole and Mr James went to Madrid in Spain

to meet with Alejandro Cao de Benos.

Through me, Mr James had an order ready for North Korean weapons

as well as methamphetamine.

Would the president of the Korean Friendship Association

be open for business,

now that he was being investigated for arms trafficking?

So, Alejandro took James entirely on trust, on your recommendation?

And what was that story?

So, at this meeting in Madrid... Yeah.

..does James give any ideas about why he wants, why he's interested

in buying this sort of materiel?

At this point, he's stuck in Spain... Yeah. ..for legal reasons.

But he can organise your trip with James to North Korea.

Going on a secret mission to North Korea

calls for careful planning,

so I had my first in-person meeting with the mole and Mr James together,

making sure that Mr James especially

knew the most important rules of the game.

Hi, Jim. I'm Annie. Pleasure to meet you.

Lovely to meet you, too.

If we can keep the answers as brief as possible

and as precise as possible, that would be appreciated. Sure.

So, what was your perception of the possible risk at this point?

SHE LAUGHS Erm...

I was also worried for the mole.

Mr James had been around the block.

He could fend for himself.

But what about the mole?

He was just a retired chef.

So, I took him to see a teacher who could give him a crash course

in what is known as "tradecraft" among spies.

In short, I took him to see Max,

a former CIA agent.

If he makes a mistake, he could find himself...

..tied up in the centre of town with a blowtorch...

..as an example for nobody else to do that.

So...

But why trust a former CIA agent

with the identity and secrets of the mole? It's a good question.

Max had been fired from the Central Intelligence Agency

and was not in good standing with the company any more,

which made it safer to trust him.

I'm going to kill you.

Why?

OK, yep.

Anyway, I was in need of someone who could teach the mole the ropes

before he returned to North Korea.

If somebody's holding a gun on you,

you're not going to expect them to...take it away.

All right? All you're looking for is a split-second edge.

And besides, as the saying goes,

who can you trust these days?

Observation skills.

What I say, what's common is common... Yeah.

..and what ain't, ain't.

That means if it's common, that's usual for the area,

OK, that's normal.

If something stands out, it stands out for a reason,

so you've got to be aware of your surroundings.

You might as well give them your phone and say,

"Here, look at it," because that's how easy it is nowadays.

You have to assume they can read all of your messages.

So, when they look at your emails accounts,

they can go way, way, way, way, way back.

They're going to feel like you betrayed them.

You didn't really believe in...socialism or communism.

You didn't really believe in North Korea as a place to go.

You didn't really believe it.

That was all just... You were a mole.

Be careful that they don't set a trap for you.

So, like, when they walk out of the room and leave papers,

don't touch them, don't go near them.

Then, they can say, "Oh, we knew he was going to go through these."

You don't care about those. Don't even think about messing with that.

I tell you what, you are a hero of mine doing this.

It's very dangerous. So, this is the real deal. Yeah.

Safe journey. Thank you, Max.

Godspeed. Thank you. Bye. Bye now.

Right in the middle of these anxieties,

an American university student was arrested in North Korea.

NEWSREADER: ..was sentenced to hard labour

for stealing a propaganda poster. The Warmbier...

His crime was simply stealing a poster

from his hotel in Pyongyang.

NEWSREADER: Another American front and centre

in Pyongyang's propaganda parade.

Otto Frederick Warmbier,

a University of Virginia business major,

making a dramatic, emotional confession.

Warmbier's parents issued a statement today...

VOICE FADES OUT

So, can you tell me what happened when you got there?

MUSIC PLAYS

POP MUSIC PLAYS

VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYS

OPERA SINGING

OUT-OF-TUNE SINGING

WOMEN SING

APPLAUSE

So, how did the deal progress once you were there?

GUNSHOT

GUNSHOT

So how long did this, erm - shall we call it a courtship period - last?

Two days. OK.

LOW CHATTER

INDICATOR CLICKING

Under a basement... Yeah. in a rotting house. Yeah.

Were you frightened?

MEN SPEAKING KOREAN

Is this when this photograph was taken?

So, can you tell me who is who?

Mm-hm.

Mm-hm.

OK.

HE LAUGHS

Mm-hm.

Like a sort of menu? Yeah. OK.

And what sort of weapons are we talking about?

So this is all on offer?

Yeah, this is what we were just handed over the table.

Wow! So we've got Scud missiles? Yeah.

So, you can get five Scud missiles for $14 million.

Missile launchers. Yeah.

So we're going up to Scud-E missiles now. Yeah. Good God.

$25 million.

Yeah.

And that's a high explosive warhead, and that's thermobaric. Oof!

I mean, that's as close as you can get to a nuke... Yeah.

..without it being a nuke.

What's this?

The arms factory? Yeah. Yeah, OK.

All signed and sealed, as well. Yes.

And what was Ulrich doing during this meeting

when you were signing contracts?

He was allowed to film?!

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

And where is that?

At this point, you're in a secret underground lair in North Korea,

facilitating the signature of a weapons contract.

What is going through your head at this stage?

APPLAUSE

And Alejandro is aware of all of this?

MUSIC PLAYS

APPLAUSE

And did the Koreans have any preferences

when it came to countries, or suggestions?

So, to sum it up,

you are now a North Korean weapons dealer and broker?

Yes.

NEWSREADER: Good evening, and it's great to have you with us here

on a Monday night. And we begin with late developments today,

the worsening horror for a mother and father from Ohio.

Their son, who was just returned from North Korea

with severe brain damage, has now died.

Since the moment their son was sentenced

to hard labour for stealing a propaganda poster,

the Warmbiers were fighting until he was released.

The look in his eyes, which I didn't know he was blind at the time,

was absolute horror - horror like he'd seen the devil.

And he had. He was with the devil.

Back in Copenhagen, I was shocked to discover what my two proxies

had accomplished in Pyongyang.

They had brought real, raw intelligence with them.

As the scholar Andrea Berger writes in her study Target Markets,

very little is known about pricing on North Korean weapons systems,

but here was a fully detailed menu in hard copy.

Mr James being appointed as a North Korean arms broker

seemed like the figment of a sick mind,

but here also was a signed and sealed contract,

drawn up in English by the North Koreans.

Before Mr James came along, only a few non-Koreans

had been known to broker weapons for the regime in Pyongyang.

Back in 2011, the British arms dealer Michael Ranger was arrested

for brokering a deal between Azerbaijan and North Korea,

but he was a highly experienced arms dealer in a dangerous game

for experts, let alone amateurs.

Nevertheless, Mr James and the mole had scored a jackpot.

RUSTLING

ZIPPER ZIPS

To prepare the mole for his next mission, Alejandro would now provide

guidance on how to operate as a businessman in Uganda.

OK.

OK.

Oh, OK.

You were mic'd up?