Balloons v bullets

摘要

ONE AFTERNOON in February a man knocked on the door of the North Korean embassy in Madrid and asked to speak to the charge d'affaires. Having been invited in, he opened the door to his nine accomplices. According to the Spanish judge investigating the incident, the group proceeded to beat, tie up and interrogate those inside. When the police came knocking hours later, alerted by neighbours who had heard the screams of a woman who had managed to escape through a window, a man who looked like a North Korean official opened the door and told them that everything was in order. Shortly afterwards, the assailants fled the scene in two cars belonging to the embassy and an Uber, carrying stolen pen drives, computers and hard drives. They escaped to Portugal, and eventually to America, where they allegedly presented their loot to the FBI.