This story keeps getting crazier & Spain is taking it seriously...North Korean Embassy Attack Suspects Fled To U.S., Spanish Court Says

via NPR

A Spanish court says assailants who broke into North Korea's Embassy in Madrid last month later fled to the U.S.

According to new documents unsealed on Tuesday, the perpetrators of the attack included a U.S. citizen and another resident. The leader of the plot fled via Lisbon to Newark, N.J., and offered stolen material to the FBI in New York.

"We have no comment," Martin Feely, a spokesman for the FBI's New York field office, told NPR in an email.

Spain's Embassy in Washington, D.C., also declined to comment. "There is a judicial procedure underway," an embassy spokesperson said.

Late Tuesday, a Web site apparently associated with a secretive North Korean dissident movement called "Free Joseon" published a statement claiming the group carried out an operation at the North Korean Embassy in Madrid. But the group denied it was an attack and refuted much of the Spanish court's account.

The Madrid incident occurred on Feb. 22, just days before the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam. That summit ended in a stalemate after the U.S. and North Korea could not agree on a deal.

The Spanish judge in the newly unsealed case, Judge José de la Mata, says 10 individuals — whom he refers to as a "criminal organization" — were involved in crimes including falsified documents, illegal detention and injuries. The court statement identifies the suspected leader of the group as A. Hong Chang, a Mexican citizen and U.S. resident. (Some reports have named that person as Adrian Hong Chang.) The documents also say a U.S. and South Korean citizen are suspected in the break-in.

Story here. 

Wow.

This is crazy.  When I first posted about this story I was hoping that it was a flash in the pan and that the investigation wouldn't continue, that there was no way the US was involved and that this was just another one of those urban legends.

I was wrong (apparently) on all counts.

It appears that a US intel organization did initiate this action, that US nationals were involved and these same people escaped back to the US.

That's not even the worst of it.

The timing of the whole thing is suspicious as hell.

Why would you carry out an op like this so close to a summit meeting?  It's like someone wanted it to fail!  The batshit craziness of the thing is beyond imagination too.  They not only broke into an EMBASSY but they also tied up the employees there.  I don't know if they were roughed up but it wouldn't surprise me.

Additionally we can assume that some type of devices were left behind too.

What's even more stunning is the total lack of air time this is getting in the US.  Only NPR is touching this thing and they're small beans when it comes to news organizations.

What in the world is really going on and what is the motivation?