Bae Yong-ju, a North Korean hacker believed to have died after being forcibly repatriated in August 2023. [Transitional Justice Working Group]
Bae Yong-ju, a North Korean hacker believed to have died after being forcibly repatriated in August 2023. [Transitional Justice Working Group]

A North Korean hacker operating in China who attempted to defect to South Korea was captured by Chinese authorities, held for nearly a year in a secret prison beneath the North Korean embassy in Beijing, and forcibly repatriated with his entire body encased in a plaster cast, according to a new report.

The international human rights organization Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) released a report Tuesday titled "North Korea's Transnational Repression: China," detailing the case of Bae Yong-ju, 38, a North Korean hacker believed to have died after being forcibly repatriated in 2023.

According to TJWG, Bae was born into a family of ethnic Koreans repatriated from Japan to North Korea. He graduated from Madonghi Military University, an institution that trains agents for operations against South Korea, and was dispatched to China, where he stole cryptocurrency and extracted intelligence from South Korean government agencies and Chinese military institutions. He was arrested by Chinese authorities while attempting to cross the border in Inner Mongolia in a bid to defect to South Korea.

China's Ministry of State Security interrogated Bae in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, for about six months despite North Korea's demands for his immediate transfer. As the Chinese investigation dragged on, North Korea pressed for custody, and China eventually handed Bae over to the North Korean consulate general in Shenyang.

Bae was then held in a secret underground prison beneath the North Korean embassy's consular building in Beijing, where he was interrogated for approximately one year, the report said. North Korea uses the facility to detain and question its own nationals who attempt to defect or show signs of disloyalty.

When Air Koryo resumed its Pyongyang-Beijing route in August 2023, North Korean agents disguised Bae as a patient in full-body plaster casts and transported him to Pyongyang in a wheelchair. The disguise was intended to prevent him from fleeing or resisting and to avoid drawing attention from airport staff and other passengers.

A businessman with ties to North Korea told TJWG about the transfer: "They bound his joints so he could not move, encased him entirely in plaster, and made it so he could not cry out or move at all."

TJWG said it had withheld the case from publication out of consideration for the possibility that Bae might still defect, but decided to release his name after an internal source confirmed he had died in North Korea.

The report described Bae's case as an example of North Korea's version of "Operation Fox Hunt" — a campaign to track down, arrest and repatriate North Korean nationals who have strayed from their assigned movements, lost contact with handlers, or are suspected of planning to defect.

The report also said North Korea lures diplomats, students, party officials, special envoys and agents stationed around the world to Beijing and detains them at the embassy there if they show signs of attempting to defect.

When North Korea's own intelligence networks cannot locate a fugitive, the report said, Pyongyang sometimes fabricates criminal charges and asks Chinese police to assist with the arrest.

"North Korea's transnational repression constitutes serious international crimes and human rights violations, and also undermines China's judicial sovereignty and due process," TJWG said, calling on the international community to monitor whether China continues to tolerate and enable North Korea's transnational repression and to demand accountability.


bbo@heraldcorp.com