Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

soryang

(3,299 posts)
Wed Apr 10, 2019, 12:03 AM Apr 2019

Anti- North Korean Operation "Free Joseon" Continues

Thae Yong-ho, former DPRK diplomat stationed in London, who defected to South Korea, wrote a book called Cryptography From the Third-Floor, ( 3층 서기실의 암호 ). The the title is a reference to the means by which instructions to DPRK diplomatic personnel abroad are transmitted by the ruling clique in Pyongyang. ( I haven't read the book). Tae Yong Ho claimed in an interview last summer, that the code was undecipherable. Now, in a curious twist, the Channel A News analysts suggest that a similar code technique is being used by the group calling itself "Free Joseon," to give instructions to its members, who perhaps exist in North Korea.

Today Channel A News Top Ten reported an apparent numeric code having been uploaded to the spartan Free Joseon web site, on April 7, about dawn, (time zone not specified). There is no solid evidence yet that this "group" led by Adrian Hong Chang, (who is not a North Korean; but allegedly, a Yale educated Mexican-Korean, residing in the US) has any members who are North Koreans, in North Korea or otherwise. However, Hong has been associated with a network organized to assist North Korean defectors in the past. Allegedly, when Hong was escaping from the attack on the DPRK embassy building in Madrid, to deliver stolen embassy material to the FBI, he left behind an Italian passport. According to a report in the South China Morning Post:


Spanish authorities have issued two international arrest warrants, one of them for Hong, over the raid.
According to a document released by Spain’s High Court, the group have been accused of burglary, false imprisonment, assault, document forgery, threats and robbery.


https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3003507/did-us-activist-mastermind-raid-north-korean-embassy

The uploading of the brief numeric code, it is speculated by the Channel A News Top Ten program, portends ominous events to embarrass Kim Jong Un or otherwise throw North Korea into confusion, because of a vague warning of new actions to be taken in the future against North Korea by the Free Joseon group.


(Source- Channel A News Top Ten, 04.09) Thae Yong-ho, "Only I was able to know the meaning of that code; Yet even when I heard it, I had to think about its meaning for a while." Video clip from previous Top Ten program in June 2018. Thae Yong-ho former deputy ambassador of DPRK in London, on right. Left is Kim Jong-chul, Kim Jong Un's older brother, observed at an Eric Clapton concert in 2015, Thae had obtained the tickets on Pyongyang's instructions.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thae_Yong-ho


(Source- Channel A News Top Ten, 04.09) "In the silence in the lull before the storm, mysterious numbers." 8279, April 7, 2019, dawn, 4:56.


(Source- Channel A News Top Ten, 04.09) Page 45, 935th character. This graphic gives a simple example of how the code might be used to determine it's meaning by those who know the reference book, used as a source. Another analyst suggested a changing cipher key could have been used to decode the messages allegedly sent by Choellima Civil Defense on other occasions in the past.



Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»National Security & Defense»Anti- North Korean Operat...