Former US marine who raided N. Korean embassy in Spain tried in LA federal court

Former US marine and member of Free Joseon, an anti-North Korea group, Christopher Ahn is captured on camera entering the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, Spain, on Feb. 22. (AP/Yonhap News)

Christopher Ahn orchestrated raid with six other people

Former US marine and member of Free Joseon, an anti-North Korea group, Christopher Ahn is captured on camera entering the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, Spain, on Feb. 22. (AP/Yonhap News)

Details have emerged about the audacious actions of members of the group Free Joseon (formerly known as Cheollima Civil Defense) during a February raid on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, Spain. The details were shared in an indictment and arrest warrant for member Christopher Ahn, 38, a Korean-American and former Marine.

In a hearing for Ahn at a Los Angeles federal court on Apr. 23, the judge decided to disclose documents submitted by the prosecution. Adrian Hong Chang, who fled after orchestrating the embassy raid, and Ahn, who was arrested on Apr. 18, are facing six charges from Spanish authorities, namely breaking and entering, illegal detention, coercion, assault in the commission of a robbery, injury, and organized crime.

According to the indictment, a group of seven people arrived at the North Korean Embassy in Madrid at 5 pm on Feb. 22 carrying machetes, metal clubs, and fake guns, the AP and other news sources reported. Hong proceeded to knock on the embassy door and announce that he had come to meet with economic official So Yun-sok. An embassy employee allowed him in and left the area, at which point Hong opened the door to allow the remaining seven inside. The group proceeded to assault embassy employees and immobilize them with shackles and cables. So was taken into the restroom, where his hands were bound behind his back and a bag placed over his head as group members threatened him with the clubs and fake guns and encouraged him to defect. While the disturbance was taking place, the wife of one embassy employee fell and suffered injury while attempting to escape via a terrace.

Police officers arrived at the embassy after a citizen submitted a report at the woman’s request. Hong, who wore a badge showing the face of a North Korean leader, blithely presented himself as an official and insisted nothing was amiss. According to the indictment, he also requested that the police officially notify the consulate if a North Korean person had been injured. After collecting mobile phones, computers, and hard drives, the group members departed the embassy around 9:40 pm, having ransacked the premises during the four hours and 40 minutes they were there.

Ahn and four others fled in three stolen embassy vehicles, which they subsequently abandoned. Hong called for an Uber driver, using the fake name “Oswald Trump.” When the arriving vehicle stopped near the police, he canceled the request and summoned another vehicle from behind the embassy. The incident was later reported to police when three North Korean students climbed over the wall and freed the bound embassy employees.

Hong arrived in the US the day after the raid. In a meeting with an agent at the FBI office in New York a few days later, he passed along documents taken from the North Korean embassy. The indictment also reported him as having contacted an agent from the FBI’s Los Angeles branch. The FBI reportedly returned the documents received from Hong to the North Korean embassy by way of Spanish authorities.

Ahn was arrested on Apr. 18 at Hong’s Los Angeles apartment with a 40-caliber handgun concealed in his waistband. Hong was not home at the time, prosecutors said. During the hearing, Ahn requested bail, which the judge denied, citing the gravity of the case.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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