Break-in at North Korean Embassy

Date: February 22, 2019 • Location: El Pardo, Spain

A group broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain, and stole several mobile telephones and digital storage devices.

On 22 February 2019 at the Embassy of North Korea in Madrid, the political group Free Joseon, which is opposed to Kim Jong Un and the current government of North Korea, is alleged by Spanish and American authorities to have attacked the embassy. Free Joseon maintains that they were invited in to facilitate a high-level defection. A group of individuals stole mobile telephones, two USB flash drives and a hard drive from the embassy and handed them over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. The event took place after the Singapore summit between North Korea (DPRK) and the United States and prior to the Hanoi summit. As of early April 2019, one person had been arrested in connection with the incident and two international arrest warrants had been issued by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional. The suspected perpetrators are citizens of Mexico, the US and South Korea, although the latter two governments denied any connection with the incident.