In fact, Mr Kim is a taekwondo master and, allegedly, a North Korean spy. They were released after the North Korean ambassador to South Africa intervened. How much of this shadowy commerce is for personal gain, and how much is to meet the North Korean regime’s thirst for hard currency, is impossible to say. North Korean diplomats earn pitiful salaries: in the mid-1990s, embassy staff in Zambia went fishing in a nearby river to catch food for their national-day reception. The report quotes a defector who worked for Bureau 38 as saying that while he was posted to China, he often brokered meetings between local organised criminals and North Korean diplomats in Africa.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 21, 2017 14:48 UTC