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Five hundred. it's

1:59

it Every front more, with

2:02

the horrors of Gaza dominating headlines.

2:05

Less attention is being paid to the two

2:07

other fronts Israel is engaged in. Iran

2:11

to the east. Another drone coming in. And

2:15

as we saw firsthand, Hezbollah

2:18

attacking in the north. Those

2:22

are alerts? These are alerts. To

2:25

us. Stay inside. Stay inside. Tonight,

2:29

you'll hear about fake

2:31

kidnappings, political assassinations, and

2:33

dramatic rescues. There

2:35

are almost as many questions as

2:37

there are answers about this strange

2:40

story involving North Korea. But

2:44

one thing seems clear. This

2:47

American believes he is an

2:49

endangered man. The FBI

2:51

has told me that

2:53

my life is in danger. That

2:56

the North Korean government is

2:59

now and will be targeting me for

3:02

assassination. I'm

3:05

Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill

3:07

Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm

3:09

Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim.

3:11

I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm

3:13

Scott Pelley. Those stories and

3:15

more tonight on 60 Minutes.

3:26

That's not just the sound of that first sip

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of morning joe. It's the sound of someone shopping

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for a car on Carvana from the comfort of

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Comfortable. Ah. What

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makes a life a good one? Is

3:59

it the adventure? you have, or

4:02

the friends you find along the way. Maybe

4:05

it's pursuing your passion while striving to protect,

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defend, and save what you believe in every

4:10

single day. So

4:13

what makes a life a good one? In

4:16

the Coast Guard, we think it's all

4:19

of the above and more. You'll

4:21

have to find out for yourself. Visit

4:23

gocoastguard.com to learn more. Leslie

4:30

Stahl has spent a week on the ground

4:32

in Israel, where its military is engaged

4:34

on three fronts, with Hezbollah in

4:36

the north, with Iran in the

4:38

east, and the ongoing war with

4:40

Hamas in Gaza that has created

4:42

catastrophic civilian consequences. We're

4:46

at the Erez Crossing into Gaza,

4:48

which is open at the moment,

4:50

though the flow of aid trucks

4:52

in has slowed to a trickle.

4:55

This has been a week of high

4:58

drama in Israel. First

5:00

off, we have the tension, increasing tension,

5:02

with the United States over

5:04

the imminent invasion of Rafa, and

5:07

President Biden's punitive step in holding

5:09

off the delivery of bombs that

5:11

could be used in that invasion.

5:15

There's been a week of intense diplomacy,

5:17

with CIA Director William Burns

5:19

here to try and breathe

5:21

life into the ceasefire for

5:23

hostages deal. It's

5:26

been a month since Iran's brutal

5:28

attack with missiles and drones, but

5:31

this has been a week of more

5:33

hostilities. In the north, there's

5:35

an intensifying of the not-much-covered

5:38

battle with Hezbollah, and

5:40

in the south, Israel is

5:42

surrounding Rafa. Israeli

5:46

tanks inched in. There

5:49

were huge explosions and exchanges of

5:51

fire with Hamas. These

5:55

are images of misery, as shortages

5:57

of food and fuel become

5:59

dire. Refugees

6:01

from the north of Gaza who had taken

6:04

shelter here were

6:06

being instructed by the Israeli

6:08

military, the IDF, to move

6:10

again. What's going on

6:12

right now is a very specific

6:15

operation being run by the IDF,

6:18

a very accurate one, on the

6:20

east part of FRAFA. Brigadier

6:23

General Omar Tischler is second in

6:25

command of the Israeli Air Force.

6:28

If what you're saying is true, how come

6:30

we're seeing what looks

6:33

like indiscriminate bombing? I

6:35

understand. And I

6:37

feel sorry. But the

6:40

bottom line is Hamas dragged

6:42

us into that kind of war. President

6:45

Biden has been a steadfast

6:47

ally and supporter of Israel, and

6:50

that support of Israel is hurting him. And

6:53

now the Biden administration has

6:55

already stopped sending

6:58

weapons, 3,000 bombs for

7:01

Israeli fighter planes. I

7:03

want to talk about a specific report. What

7:06

I'll talk about is our strong

7:09

relationship with the United States. I

7:12

know that we will keep on working together with our

7:14

partners, with our friends, and with the United States. In

7:17

terms of American opinion, things

7:20

have shifted against Israel because of these images

7:22

of all the civilian

7:24

horrible scenes of

7:27

devastation. There's, I guess, two

7:29

wars. There's a war on the ground, and

7:31

then there's a war of public opinion. And

7:34

you're losing that war. I

7:37

don't know about that. I'm telling you.

7:39

Maybe you're right. What

7:41

we're doing, what we're trying to do, and

7:43

just to remind us, where it all

7:45

happened, when it all started. It

7:48

started with a brutal, brutal

7:52

attack by Hamas, killing

7:54

1,200 people at the 7th of October. Since

8:00

then, over 34,000 Palestinians

8:03

have been killed in Gaza, according

8:05

to the UN. While

8:07

Israel is engaged with Iran-backed

8:10

Hamas along Israel's southern border,

8:13

another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah,

8:15

has ramped up its

8:17

attacks from the north. We're

8:20

in Kariyat, Shimona, a city just 15 minutes

8:23

from the border with Lebanon. Right

8:25

now, Hezbollah is sending drones and

8:28

rockets into this area, and we

8:30

can hear the booms going off,

8:33

one after the next. So

8:35

far, at least two Israeli soldiers

8:37

have been killed today. And

8:40

we can also hear the Israeli counterattack.

8:43

Now, this fight is not as intense

8:45

as the one in Gaza, but

8:47

it's serious enough that Israel evacuated

8:49

more than 60,000 people,

8:52

emptying out the entire northern part

8:54

of the country. The

8:58

loss of the north feels to

9:00

Israelis like a wound, an amputation,

9:02

a humiliation. We

9:06

drove up to the border to

9:08

the abandoned and partly destroyed small

9:10

town of Matula. This

9:13

Hezbollah video shows near-daily missile

9:16

attacks pummeling the town. Liat

9:20

Cohen-Raviv is one of a

9:22

handful of residents still in

9:24

Matula who spend their days

9:26

underground in this bunker complex.

9:32

She led us into their war room, where

9:35

they monitor incoming fire from the

9:37

hillsides of Lebanon. An

9:39

area also deserted. 90,000

9:42

Lebanese were forced to flee. Twenty

9:57

minutes after we got there, reports

9:59

of The drone overhead. Carrying

10:02

explosives quickly, We

10:05

less the war. Room. And

10:08

moved to another room. I keep hearing

10:10

the noise overhead. I know were locked

10:12

in here. What's happening Severity We had

10:14

a suicide drawn. You can hear the

10:17

alerts coming as we speak. Ah and

10:19

it's about us And what's happening now

10:21

is that the army is trying to

10:23

respond to As and to sell it

10:25

on Earth. These are hundreds. The I

10:28

was say anti Sansa. Outside

10:30

the army was coming to. Rescue

10:33

two soldiers who were wounded.

10:35

And would later die. I have him

10:37

of her. After we've

10:39

been there an hour, a pause in the

10:41

fight it. he wants us to leave one

10:43

after the others after parses right right out

10:46

of your. Local

10:50

so. We.

10:53

Drove as fast as we could as

10:55

the fighting his self again. For.

11:00

Would you say that you are

11:02

fighting a multi front. War

11:04

rising. Yes. General. Tischler

11:07

cause the fight was Hezbollah one

11:09

part of a three hundred sixty

11:11

degree war with Iran. To

11:14

gave us a rare tour of

11:16

Israeli Air Force headquarters which they

11:18

taped for us. was no sound

11:21

and blurred for security reasons. He.

11:24

Showed us where he sat the

11:26

night of April Thirteen when Iran

11:28

list. Israel from its own soil

11:30

for the first time. To

11:33

retaliate for the assassination in

11:35

Damascus of a top a

11:37

rainy and general Saran launched

11:40

a massive synchronize the tax

11:42

have some hundred seventy suicide.

11:44

Drones. Over

11:47

thirty cruise missiles, That sly

11:49

low and fast like jets.

11:53

And over a Hundred Twenty Ballistic.

11:55

Missiles. The skies.

11:57

across the middle east lit up

12:00

as pilots shot down the drones

12:02

and cruise missiles. Israel's

12:06

advanced arrow system took down

12:08

ballistic missiles in the outer

12:10

atmosphere. Only a

12:13

handful of all that made it

12:15

through. Till that

12:17

night Iran attacked us

12:19

using its proxies from Yemen, from

12:21

Iraq, from Syria, from Lebanon. But

12:24

on that night Iran attacked Israel

12:26

directly. Do you think that

12:28

it's possible that Iran chose to do

12:30

this because it perceived

12:32

Israel right now as

12:34

being weak? You're arguing

12:36

with the Americans, all

12:38

kinds of issues with Gaza. Iran

12:42

attacked us with all their capabilities and

12:44

they failed. And

12:47

Iran knows that we are capable of attacking

12:49

at any given time. One

12:52

reason Iran failed was because

12:54

a surprising coalition joined forces

12:57

to help Israel, including several

12:59

Arab states, like

13:01

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the

13:03

Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar. I'll

13:06

say that what happened at that night, on

13:08

that night, was historic. But

13:11

we didn't do it on our own. We've done it

13:13

with our partners. Are you talking about

13:16

the Saudis and the Jordanians? We're

13:18

flying with the US, with the Brits, with

13:20

the French. And I'm not

13:23

talking. I don't think it will be wise to

13:25

talk about other countries. But you know,

13:27

that is the most interesting part of

13:29

all this. It's almost unfathomable to think

13:32

that these Arab countries would come into

13:34

the air to defend Israel. What's

13:37

clear now is that Iran

13:40

poses threat to

13:42

the region and we should

13:44

act together against Iran. But

13:47

you know something? The Arab countries are

13:49

refusing to admit they participated. What

13:52

do you make of that? We're not

13:54

talking. We're acting. So

13:57

less words and more action. all

14:00

surprised that all those Arab countries

14:03

came into this coalition with Israel, given

14:05

what's going on in Gaza. Given

14:08

the context of Gaza, unbelievable.

14:11

Tamir Ayman is former head

14:13

of Israeli Army Intelligence, now

14:16

head of the Institute for National

14:18

Security Studies. Well, what did these

14:21

other countries really do, like

14:24

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

14:26

and Jordan? The

14:29

main issue is early detection.

14:32

If you have a network of radars

14:34

spread all over the Middle East,

14:37

connected into one central

14:39

hub, which is maybe

14:41

American one, you give, you

14:44

spread a network of detections that you

14:47

give you enough time to be prepared.

14:50

Days after the attack, a group

14:52

of orthodox men found a ballistic

14:54

missile in the desert that was

14:56

successfully shot down by the army.

14:59

Another one was found floating in the

15:02

Dead Sea. Both

15:04

were brought to this army base

15:06

for forensic analysis. No

15:08

one was killed that night. One

15:11

girl was injured from falling debris.

15:15

But four ballistic missiles did hit

15:17

the Nevateem Air Force base. Base

15:20

commander Yotam Sigler showed us one

15:22

point of impact. His

15:25

base was one of Iran's main

15:27

targets because it's home to

15:29

Israel's fleet of stealth F-35s. Were

15:33

any of your F-35s

15:35

damaged in any way? No. But

15:38

what they did prove to you, to

15:40

themselves and to the world, is that

15:42

they could send a ballistic missile from

15:45

Iran and hit Israel. Yeah. It

15:48

is a big deal. So if those

15:50

four had hit and they had nuclear weapons

15:52

on them, this must

15:55

terrify Israel. Yeah. It

15:57

terrifies not only Israel, But... The.

16:00

Middle of The Middle East. The.

16:02

Us and Israel consider the

16:05

Battle of April Thirteen a

16:07

win. But

16:09

so does Iran. President Biden

16:11

issued a public morning to

16:13

Iran. Don't. Attack.

16:16

Don't. Do This. Several. Times. And

16:19

they did. They decide him. From.

16:21

Their eyes it's a strategic

16:24

victory they have stood this

16:26

against as they Rick Smith

16:28

by the most powerful nation

16:30

in the world and visa

16:32

and refine it. Tamir Iman

16:34

is concerned about Israel's future

16:36

with the Us. We are

16:38

worried about the turn of thrones.

16:41

Inside Israel and the internal long

16:43

term trends inside United States, What

16:46

happened right now in in either

16:48

universities in the United States is

16:50

just acceleration of Us a nominal

16:53

that was will observed. I.

16:55

Think a year ago death

16:57

is that we have a

16:59

challenge on maintaining the common

17:02

values which are the basics.

17:04

Of those of the special

17:06

connection relationship with United States,

17:08

we are drifting apart and

17:10

it's strategic threat as we

17:12

need to address. Prime

17:15

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tested the

17:17

special relationship this week with

17:19

a public message for President

17:22

Biden that the incursion into

17:24

Rasa is on with or

17:26

without the Us weapons. If

17:29

Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel

17:32

will stand on them. The

17:34

week here ended with the points

17:36

of contention. Even more acute: the

17:39

Un says it could run out

17:41

of food to distribute to Gaza

17:43

as soon as today. Here.

17:45

In Tel Aviv, the hostage

17:47

families continue their vigil as

17:49

some of their protests have

17:52

turned into violent clashes with

17:54

the police and Cia Director

17:56

William Burns left the region.

17:58

With. no progress on

18:00

the ceasefire for hostage's negotiations.

18:09

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car buying should be. No

19:09

one could have ever imagined a case like

19:11

this one. Those words

19:13

from a federal judge described the plight

19:15

of Christopher Onn, an American

19:18

citizen who has managed to get

19:20

himself entangled in a web of

19:22

intrigue involving the United States, Spain

19:24

and North Korea. Tonight

19:26

you'll hear about fake kidnappings,

19:28

political assassinations and dramatic rescues.

19:32

And you'll get a unique insight into North

19:34

Korea, the world's most isolated

19:36

country. There are almost

19:38

as many questions as there are answers about

19:41

this strange story, but

19:43

one thing seems clear. Christopher

19:45

Onn is an endangered man. We

19:50

met Christopher Onn in Southern California,

19:52

where the 43-year-old son of Korean

19:54

immigrants was born and raised. Onn

19:57

joined the Marines at 19 and served

19:59

in Fallujah. When he returned

20:01

from Iraq, he got his MBA

20:03

from the University of Virginia and

20:05

co-founded a consulting business. But

20:08

seven years ago, the self-described

20:10

do-gooder picked up an unusual

20:12

hobby, helping North Korean diplomats

20:15

defect. I don't think that

20:17

I could morally

20:20

look at myself in the mirror if

20:22

I turned away from someone who was desperately

20:24

asking for help. How many

20:26

North Koreans did

20:29

you help defect? I always

20:31

try to lean on caution and

20:33

not really talk about— But is it a

20:35

handful, dozens? Give

20:38

us a sense of what we're talking about. Or was

20:40

this, you know, one or two

20:42

and I'm out? Um, it's

20:45

more than one or two and it's less

20:47

than dozens. Ahn says

20:49

he did it with a secretive makeshift

20:52

group of activists who called themselves

20:54

to Lima Civil Defense. They

20:57

claim to have helped high-profile

20:59

North Koreans defect. There

21:01

were whispers within the North

21:03

Korean diplomatic community about this

21:06

strange organization that was out there

21:08

doing this. Was

21:11

it a loosely formed group of people? It

21:13

was. And how big are we talking

21:15

about? I don't even actually know the number. Shalima's

21:20

grand mission was to overthrow

21:22

the North Korean dictatorship, one

21:26

of the most repressive regimes in the world.

21:29

The underground group was led by

21:31

this man, Adrian Hong, a Korean

21:33

Mexican who held a U.S. green

21:35

card. A Yale dropout,

21:38

Hong became a human rights activist.

21:41

He was himself a freedom fighter who

21:43

was conducting a revolution. Did

21:45

you view yourself as a freedom fighter?

21:48

No. No. I, I,

21:51

obviously Adrian has his

21:53

motivations to doing what he wants to do,

21:56

but my motivation was just simply

21:58

to bring... some

22:00

hope to people who were hopeless. In

22:04

the fall of 2018, Christopher An

22:06

was in Italy, when a chalima

22:08

team reportedly arranged for North Korea's

22:11

acting ambassador and his wife to

22:13

walk out of their embassy in Rome, jump

22:16

into a waiting car, and speed away to

22:18

freedom. In February

22:20

of 2019, Christopher An

22:22

flew to Spain for another

22:24

secret operation. An says

22:26

when he landed, he didn't know the details,

22:29

but suspected it had something to do with

22:31

the North Korean embassy in Madrid. He

22:34

went straight to the safe house, where he

22:36

learned about the ambitious plan. Chalima

22:38

was going to help the entire

22:40

North Korean embassy, an estimated 10

22:43

people, defect. How

22:45

was the mission explained here? What

22:47

I was told was that everyone in the

22:50

embassy wanted to

22:52

defect, but were afraid to.

22:56

And so our

22:58

main point of contact in

23:00

the embassy had

23:02

asked us to stage a

23:04

kidnapping, so that

23:07

there would be some

23:09

type of plausible reason that

23:11

all of a sudden everyone in the embassy

23:14

disappeared, because the penalty

23:16

for defecting is death, but

23:18

not just for the defector. It's

23:21

death for everyone the

23:23

defector knows, interacts with. If

23:26

you can make them look like victims, then their

23:28

families in North Korea, their friends, are

23:30

not in jeopardy. Correct. At

23:33

any point did you think, this sounds a

23:36

little bizarre, like this sounds crazy what we're doing here,

23:38

or did you think it's a good idea? Of

23:41

course it sounds crazy, you know? But

23:45

what the North Korean people go through is crazy.

23:49

Chalima's mission in Madrid would be its

23:52

biggest jet, essentially to take over the

23:54

North Korean embassy and fake a mass

23:56

kidnapping. On February 20, the North Korean

23:58

embassy was forced to take over the

24:00

North Korean embassy, 22nd around 4 30,

24:03

Chilema leader Adrian Hong posing as a

24:05

businessman went to the front door. He

24:08

rings the doorbell and

24:10

he's let in. And

24:13

what I was told was that the

24:15

door would be left open for us

24:17

and the plan was

24:20

that when we received a signal

24:23

for us to walk into the

24:25

Embassy and then begin the staged

24:29

kidnapping. Moments later

24:31

screen grabs from security cameras show

24:34

other members of the Chilema team,

24:36

including Christopher on walking through the

24:38

front door of the North Korean

24:41

Embassy. Where was their

24:43

security aren't their version of Marines posted

24:45

outside? There was no security outside. No

24:47

security when you traditionally think of

24:49

an Embassy you think of like you

24:53

know reinforced doors and guards and all

24:55

this kinds of people their

24:57

Embassy is not that kind of an Embassy. It's

25:00

a house with a driveway

25:03

and a door that leads into

25:05

their little compound. Are you

25:07

carrying a weapon or members in the group?

25:09

I was never carrying a weapon, but yes,

25:11

there were weapons there fake

25:13

guns. So, you know, and

25:16

who would bring fake guns into

25:18

a into a kidnapping, right? Fake

25:20

guns for what he says was a

25:23

fake kidnapping aware. They were

25:25

likely under surveillance on

25:27

says Embassy staff members were tied

25:29

up and herded into a room

25:31

where he quietly addressed them.

25:34

We've answered your call and we're here

25:36

to to help you defect. And how

25:38

did they react to that? It was

25:40

disbelief. It was excitement.

25:43

Someone said is

25:45

this really happening and that

25:47

to me confirmed what

25:50

I was told earlier that day that

25:52

everyone inside wanted to defect. Describe

25:54

what you saw when you went inside the

25:56

Embassy. What does it look like? There

25:59

was almost no furniture. It

26:01

was bare. The walls were bare, except

26:04

a few propaganda kind of

26:06

posters. And

26:09

so the whole place was

26:11

very echoey. And I opened up the refrigerator,

26:14

and there was nothing in there. And

26:17

immediately I thought to myself, these

26:21

are the elites. These are the

26:23

cream of the crop of North

26:25

Korea. And

26:27

they have nothing to eat in

26:29

there. One hour into

26:31

the operation, An says the Cholima team

26:33

was on the verge of leaving the

26:35

embassy with the North Koreans when

26:38

everything changed. There's

26:40

a ring at the door, and

26:42

everyone's very surprised by this. And I see that

26:44

it's the Spanish police. And

26:47

that's shocking. What are

26:49

they doing here? I go back

26:51

into the room with everybody, and

26:53

they ask me quietly, you know,

26:56

who is at the door? Why is the doorbell

26:58

ringing? So I said, the police

27:00

are at the door, and

27:02

then you see the

27:05

color on everyone's face just

27:07

turn to lily white. And

27:10

they would whisper to me, very

27:14

terrified, and say that they know, they

27:16

know, they know. As

27:18

the police waited for someone to answer,

27:20

Cholima leader Adrienne Hong put on

27:23

a North Korean lapel pin to look

27:25

like a diplomat. Then opened

27:27

the front door. The police

27:29

informed Hong that a bloody North Korean

27:31

woman had frantically told them there was

27:34

a problem inside the embassy. Hong

27:36

replied nothing was wrong and shut

27:38

the door. I believe that was when we

27:42

realized that not everyone

27:44

was accounted for. Who

27:46

was missing? It was

27:48

the wife of one of the

27:50

members of the embassy staff. The

27:53

wife had jumped off an embassy balcony

27:55

in the early minutes of the incursion.

27:58

Despite an injured leg, she dragged

28:00

herself onto the street where she

28:02

was discovered by an alarmed Spanish

28:05

motorist. After the police left,

28:07

the phone all of a sudden started ringing

28:10

and ringing. It would ring, ring, ring, ring,

28:13

wait about five, ten seconds, and ring,

28:15

ring, ring again for hours. And

28:19

in that echoey house where the

28:21

phone ringing is just echoing everywhere,

28:24

I don't care how courageous you think you are,

28:26

that is scary. And

28:29

so it is

28:31

totally and completely understandable

28:34

why they would be afraid. That they'd

28:37

been caught. Yes. No

28:40

one knew who was calling, but the

28:42

fear was the North Korean government was

28:45

now aware something was amiss inside its

28:47

Madrid embassy. The acting

28:49

ambassador, So Yeon-sok, Shulima's main

28:51

point of contact for the

28:53

alleged mass defection was inside

28:55

the embassy and seemed spooked.

28:58

Adrian said the main point of

29:00

contact believes that this mission has

29:02

been compromised and that

29:04

he's too afraid to go. And

29:07

so we need to get out of there. Our

29:10

main point of contact there gives

29:12

members of the group keys

29:14

to the embassy vehicles. Just

29:17

after 9 p.m., four and a half

29:20

hours after it entered the embassy, the

29:22

Shulima team fled in the embassy vehicles.

29:25

They ditched them all over Madrid. No one

29:27

was caught. Christopher

29:29

Ahn hailed a cab and went to Portugal

29:32

and eventually back to the United States. Left

29:35

behind at the embassy, knives,

29:37

handcuffs, fake guns, and the

29:39

shaken staff. And

29:41

now the North Korean acting ambassador

29:44

who supposedly asked for help defecting

29:46

told Spanish police the entire embassy

29:49

staff had been held against their

29:51

will and beaten. At

29:54

any point did you see anyone harm

29:57

any members of the embassy? The

30:25

Cholima team took and later posted

30:27

video of one of its members,

30:30

not Christopher Ahn, smashing the photos

30:32

of North Korean leaders inside the

30:34

embassy. That raised more

30:37

questions, as did the timing

30:39

of the raid. It

30:41

happened five days before then President

30:43

Trump met for a second time

30:45

with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un

30:47

in Hanoi, a meeting

30:49

some human rights activists feared would

30:52

empower the North Korean regime. Would

30:54

the intention of the operation

30:57

provoke Kim Jong-un? I

31:00

didn't even know that that was happening. Come

31:02

on. Everybody knew that was happening. I mean,

31:04

if you are a North

31:07

Korea watcher or an academic- You are a North

31:09

Korea watcher. I am not.

31:11

I am not. I'm just a guy from L.A. It

31:15

seems like you would be aware of that, that

31:17

this was in your orbit, that you cared what

31:19

was going on. You're a smart guy. The

31:22

whole world is talking about these two leaders

31:25

meeting. You didn't know that was going to happen?

31:27

So maybe I did. But none

31:30

of what I am doing is

31:33

motivated by anything political or

31:35

anything bigger

31:41

than the fact that I

31:44

was asked to help these defectors defect. Back

31:47

in the U.S., Adrian Hong

31:49

turned over computers and other

31:51

digital data Cholima took from

31:53

the North Korean embassy to the FBI.

31:56

Christopher Ahn says he also met

31:58

with FBI agents. at his

32:00

apartment in LA. We had a

32:03

really friendly conversation. They asked

32:05

me about my involvement, what

32:07

happened. I tried

32:09

to be as truthful as I could. We

32:12

ended the meeting with me asking, like, hey,

32:14

is everything good? Should

32:17

I be concerned with anything? And

32:19

their response was, oh, no, not at all.

32:23

From our perspective, you

32:25

were furthering American interests. So

32:27

you thought, I'm good. And then

32:29

what happened? Well,

32:33

about two, three

32:35

weeks after that or so, one

32:38

of the FBI agents called me and

32:41

said that

32:43

North Korea had discovered my identity

32:46

and that I needed to be vigilant, and

32:50

that the only place in this world

32:52

that I am safe is

32:55

here in the United States. The FBI

32:57

has told you what

32:59

about the threat. The FBI

33:01

has told me that

33:03

my life is in danger, that

33:06

the North Korean government is

33:09

now and will be targeting me

33:12

for assassination. At

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Empathy is our best policy. Okay,

33:51

picture this. It's Friday afternoon when

33:53

a thought hits you. I

33:56

can spend another week in doing the same old whatever,

33:58

or I can hop into my office. Christopher

34:26

Farrand maintains when he and a group

34:28

of human rights activists from Cholima Civil

34:30

Defense entered the North Korean embassy in

34:33

Madrid in 2019, it was all theater,

34:35

part of a

34:38

botched fake kidnapping to help the

34:40

North Korean embassy staff who wanted

34:42

to defect. In the

34:44

aftermath of the incursion, the FBI

34:46

warned on and Cholima's leader, Adrian

34:48

Hong, that their lives were in

34:51

danger. I

34:53

was going into this apartment. Two months

34:55

after the raid in Madrid, Christopher Farrand

34:57

says he was carrying a gun for

34:59

protection when he came here to

35:02

Adrian Hong's L.A. apartment to drop

35:04

off security cameras. He

35:06

was stunned to find U.S. marshals

35:08

inside. I open the

35:11

door and I walk in and the marshals are

35:13

in there. And I surprise them, they surprise me.

35:16

They put a gun to my head and said, like, don't

35:18

move or I'll blow your brains out. Farrand

35:20

says he was handcuffed and taken to jail for

35:22

his role in the raid of the North

35:24

Korean embassy in Madrid. When

35:27

you're in jail, are you thinking this

35:29

is a big misunderstanding and surely

35:31

I'll be out any day? Or

35:33

did you think this doesn't look

35:35

good? I thought I'd get bail, right?

35:38

Immediately. I don't have a criminal record. I don't

35:40

think I even had a parking ticket in the last 15 years. Christopher

35:44

Farrand spent 87 days behind

35:46

bars in the Los Angeles

35:48

Metropolitan Detention Center. Spain

35:51

had issued international arrest warrants

35:53

for him and seven other

35:55

Cholima activists, charging them with

35:57

breaking and entering, illegal restraint

35:59

and conduct. injuries. Spain

36:02

has said it's a criminal organization. Was

36:04

it a criminal organization in your mind?

36:07

I mean unless it's a crime to care and it's

36:09

a crime to help

36:12

people. I get wanting to

36:14

help people but why not let

36:16

you know the CIA let the professionals

36:18

do this. I think it's because all

36:21

those professionals haven't done this. What

36:24

is a diplomat supposed to do? Who are they

36:26

supposed to go to if they want to escape?

36:29

Are they supposed to go to the embassy

36:32

of their sworn enemy? They

36:35

have lived their entire lives knowing

36:38

that they're being watched 24-7 and

36:41

we're the only ones in the world that

36:43

they trust. US

36:45

Marshals published a wanted poster for

36:47

Chaleema leader Adrian Hong calling him

36:50

armed and dangerous. He

36:52

went underground and remains a fugitive

36:54

today. Christopher An is

36:56

now out on bail but he's

36:58

been ordered to wear an ankle monitor.

37:00

His legal saga is far from

37:03

over. Spain

37:05

wants him to stand trial in Madrid. There

37:08

is an extradition treaty between the United

37:10

States and Spain and for

37:12

five years the US Department of Justice

37:14

has argued that federal courts are

37:17

obligated to sign off on sending

37:19

Christopher An to Spain. This

37:21

is what the US Attorney has said about the

37:23

case. He said countries have an obligation to protect

37:26

diplomats that's how it works and for Spain it

37:28

is a black eye to have a group come

37:30

in and commit what they are charging

37:32

as crimes. Is that a

37:34

fair point? Does Spain have a

37:36

duty to protect foreign embassies on

37:39

its soil? Of course they do. Spain needs

37:41

to make sure that other

37:43

countries and their embassies feel safe.

37:47

The United States needs to make sure

37:49

that their allies know that they honor

37:51

their treaties and their agreements but

37:54

North Korea is not a normal country.

37:57

It's a terrorist state. Sun Yoon Lee is

37:59

a fellow at the Wilson Center, a

38:02

Washington-based think tank. An

38:04

expert on North Korea, he testified

38:06

at Christopher An's federal court hearing

38:08

that if An is extradited to

38:10

Spain, he would be vulnerable to

38:13

North Korean assassins. Do you think

38:15

they will go after Christopher An?

38:17

Absolutely. In Spain? Well, Spain is

38:19

an advanced country, but North Korea

38:22

is brazen enough to commit crimes

38:24

like kidnapping and murder in

38:26

several European countries. Christopher An

38:29

is, I'm afraid, a very

38:31

high priority target for the

38:33

Kim regime. And the

38:35

reason is because the so-called

38:37

raid on the North Korean

38:39

embassy in Madrid was unprecedented.

38:42

Moreover, Christopher An is

38:44

the person we learned

38:46

later who challenged

38:48

the unchallengeable, infallible, inviolable

38:51

North Korean leader twice.

38:54

Twice. Because in a crazy

38:56

twist to a crazy story,

38:58

Christopher An had been involved

39:00

in another rescue that outraged

39:02

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un

39:05

two years before the Madrid raid. February

39:10

2017, the Kuala Lumpur

39:12

International Airport in Malaysia.

39:15

Those are two suspected North Korean

39:17

agents lurking in the departure hall.

39:20

And that is Kim Jong-nam, the

39:22

half-brother and critic of North Korean

39:24

dictator Kim Jong-un. He enters

39:26

the hall to catch a flight around 9 a.m. In

39:31

this blurry video, Kim Jong-nam is

39:33

accosted by two women who smear

39:35

him in the eyes with BX

39:37

nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon.

39:40

Within 30 minutes, he is dead.

39:43

This assassination occurs, and it's a

39:45

shock to everyone. Including

39:48

the 21-year-old son of Kim

39:50

Jong-nam, who was living in

39:52

China. Christopher An says

39:54

Kim Han-seol, who was viewed as

39:56

a potential heir and threat to

39:58

the North Korean throne was terrified.

40:01

He got a call from North Korea

40:04

that there were people coming to execute

40:06

him or assassinate him and

40:08

that when he looked out the window that

40:11

all of his security disappeared and

40:13

he didn't know who to turn to for help. He

40:16

turned to Adrian Hong, the head of

40:18

Cholima, for help. Hong then

40:21

turned to Christopher Ahn, the former

40:23

Marine, to pull off the rescue.

40:25

He says, can you fly to

40:27

Taiwan and meet him there and

40:31

keep him safe while we're talking

40:33

to different countries and try to figure out a

40:35

place where he could apply for

40:37

asylum? I jumped on a plane, the

40:39

last flight out, and arrived

40:41

in Taipei. How did he know to

40:44

look for you? I told Adrian that

40:46

tell him to look for

40:48

a guy with a black t-shirt, a

40:51

Dodger hat, and I'll be going

40:53

by the name Steve. And

40:56

so when his flight arrived, I

40:58

was standing by the gate and I

41:00

saw someone walking toward me

41:03

and we locked eyes and

41:05

he asked me, are you Steve? And

41:08

I said, yes. Don't

41:10

worry. I got you. At

41:12

that point, you know people may want

41:15

to kill him. Sure. Were

41:17

you nervous? I

41:20

think it would be really weird if I

41:22

wasn't nervous. Christopher

41:24

Ahn says he hid Kim Han-Seol,

41:26

the scared nephew of the North Korean

41:28

dictator, in a private room at the

41:31

airport for 36 hours until a

41:33

safe haven could be found for him.

41:35

These two people show up and

41:37

they said that they were from the CIA.

41:40

They want to talk to Han-Seol. They

41:43

know it's Han-Seol that's in there. Correct.

41:46

And so after I got confirmation that they were

41:48

actually from the CIA, I tried to

41:51

keep some distance between the two. Soon

41:54

after, Adrian confirmed that they were

41:56

from the CIA. And

41:59

so after that, I

42:01

felt relieved. He says

42:03

Adrian Hong then instructed him to

42:06

buy a plane ticket for Kim

42:08

Han-Seoul to Amsterdam. You're booking

42:10

tickets for him at this point? Yeah. The

42:12

CIA is not doing that? No. No. Does

42:16

that strike you as strange? This

42:18

whole thing is strange. Before

42:21

Kim Han-Seoul departed, Christopher An asked

42:23

him if he would record a

42:25

video. So I told him, hey, I

42:27

know this is kind of weird, but

42:29

do you mind just acknowledging

42:32

that we're here to help you? He says,

42:34

okay. In

42:37

that little hotel room, I pulled out

42:39

my cracked screen iPhone

42:41

6 and took

42:43

the video. We're very grateful

42:46

to Adrian for his help.

42:49

Adrian and his team for his

42:51

help, and we

42:54

hope this gets better

42:56

soon. The

42:58

video was seen around the world,

43:01

but Kim Han-Seoul hasn't been seen

43:03

since. An says a

43:05

CIA officer escorted Kim Han-Seoul onto

43:07

the flight, but he never showed

43:09

up in the Amsterdam Arrivals Hall. It's

43:12

believed he was whisked away to a

43:14

life in protective custody. When

43:17

you have been associated with helping

43:19

someone who was once considered

43:21

potentially the heir apparent of

43:24

North Korea disappear and find

43:26

safety, you're not just a target, you're a

43:29

top five target. Nayeon Rim is

43:31

Christopher An's attorney. She says

43:33

the FBI has also told her An

43:36

may be killed if he leads the

43:38

United States. Who in the U.S.

43:40

can stop the extradition to Spain? Anthony

43:43

Blinken can stop it. Ultimately,

43:45

President Joe Biden can stop it. In

43:48

other administrations, the Secretary

43:50

of State and the President can stop this.

43:52

But historically, they haven't. There are

43:54

almost no instances where the State

43:56

Department has stepped in and stopped

43:58

an extradition. But

44:01

there are also no cases

44:03

where the extradition request

44:06

is actually being driven by North Korea,

44:09

a country that the

44:11

United States does not have diplomatic ties with for

44:13

a reason. 60

44:16

Minutes requested interviews with the State

44:18

Department, the Justice Department and the

44:20

FBI to discuss Christopher Ahn's potential

44:23

extradition to Spain, all

44:25

declined to be interviewed. We

44:28

also reached out to Spanish officials. They

44:30

also declined to speak to us. But

44:34

last year, while filming outside the

44:36

North Korean embassy in Madrid, we

44:38

unexpectedly were confronted by the man

44:40

who was Cholima's main point of

44:42

contact for the alleged fake kidnapping,

44:45

So Yeon-seok. We

44:47

wanted to interview him. He wanted

44:49

us arrested. Neither side got its

44:52

wish. Last year,

44:54

the North Korean government released a

44:56

statement blasting the United States over

44:58

the embassy incident and singled out

45:00

one person by name, Christopher

45:02

Ahn. The North Koreans called him

45:05

a felon who deserves

45:07

severe punishment from every aspect.

45:10

North Korea has a history. You

45:12

know, the assassination that they did

45:14

in Malaysia wasn't their first one.

45:17

And they had been publicly

45:20

embarrassed with what

45:22

happened in Spain. They

45:24

had been publicly embarrassed with

45:27

me helping rescue Han

45:29

Seol. And

45:32

when they are embarrassed, they

45:34

respond fiercely.

45:38

So why

45:42

wouldn't I believe the FBI

45:45

when they tell me that North Korea

45:47

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47:18

the last minute of 60 Minutes.

47:22

Next Sunday on 60 Minutes, Pope

47:25

Francis, in a

47:27

relaxed, wide-ranging, and exceedingly rare

47:29

conversation with Nora O'Donnell from

47:32

his home inside the Vatican guest house,

47:34

Casa Santa Marta. In an

47:36

exchange that seems particularly appropriate this

47:38

Mother's Day, Nora asked about women's

47:40

role in the Catholic Church. Francis'

47:43

answer came complete with a touch

47:45

of his signature papal humor. The

47:49

Church is a mother, and

47:52

women in the Church are the ones who help

47:54

foster that motherliness. Don't

47:57

forget that the ones who never abandoned Jesus.

48:00

for the women. The men all fled. The

48:05

night after our story, CBS News

48:07

will air a one-hour primetime special

48:09

with Pope Francis. I'm

48:11

Cecilia Vega. We'll be back next week

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The comprehensive telling of who Robert Hanson

49:54

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