For Kim Jong-un’s spies, Vienna provides key gateway to Europe
- The Austrian capital is thought to be a smuggling hub for North Korea and operational outpost for its intelligence agents
- Pyongyang is said to have generated billions of dollars dealing drugs, selling weapons and partaking in other illicit activities in Vienna and elsewhere
Interviews with a senior Western intelligence official with knowledge of North Korea’s espionage network paint a vivid picture of its activities in Europe, including the presence of as many as 10 Ministry of State Security agents. At least one agent operates regularly out of Vienna, according to the official.
Besides basic information-gathering, the agents’ primary mission is keeping the regime’s own embassies and diplomats under surveillance. They also oversee illegal procurement operations, carry out investigations into missing people and retrieve cadres who have been summoned home.
Austria is central to those activities, according to the intelligence official, who asked not to be identified. While the Kim family’s travel and studies in Switzerland have long been the subject of discussion, less known are their ties to its German-speaking neighbour.
At times desperate and clumsy, North Korea’s operations in Austria and elsewhere in Europe have grown more imperative for Kim as his country struggles under sanctions. North Korea’s economy is headed this year for its biggest contraction in more than two decades, according to Fitch Solutions, due in part to Kim’s decision to close borders during the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, natural disasters including floods wiped out farmland.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gives pistols to generals on anniversary of war armistice
North Korea’s trade with China, by far its largest economic partner, shrank 73 per cent through September and is on course to plunge 80 per cent for the year, the Korea International Trade Association said in late November. Kim issued a rare warning for the economy in August, telling party leaders the country “faced unexpected and inevitable challenges”.