source_4044.pdf (2 MB)

North Korean intelligence personnel assigned to diplomatic missions in China allegedly direct surveillance, arrest squads, secret detention, interrogation, and forced repatriation of defectors and other people considered threats to the regime. The brief identifies a suspected basement prison at the North Korean embassy in Beijing and describes the 2023 repatriation of hacker Pae Yong Ju after detention and interrogation by both Chinese and North Korean authorities. It also attributes several abductions and killings in China to North Korean operatives and argues that Chinese authorities have variously tolerated, assisted, or directly participated in these operations.