WEBVTT - Deadly Agents 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:12.400 H four days before his execution, Changsung Tex sat inside 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.520 the Mansuda Assembly Hall behind a wood paneled desk, flanked 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.160 by hundreds of his fellow politicians and bureaucrats. Seated before 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:26.080 him behind an ornately carved ais was his nephew and 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:32.080 judge Kim Chang n Aschangue fidgeted in his chair, the 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:37.400 Polite euro issued its judgment to pretended to uphold the 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:42.320 party and leader was engrossed in such factional antists, dreaming 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:47.519 different dreams and involving himself in double dealing. Behind the scene, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.519 Tongue looked sullen. Two soldiers approached him, grabbed him up 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.200 by the elbows, and escorted him out of the room. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.360 The sixty seven year old official looked hunched and frail, 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:05.760 as if on the verge of collapse. Within days he 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:10.800 would be dead. The so called dreams and double dealings 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.200 Uncle Tongue committed were never specified. All we know is 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.840 that Kim jong nun considered him a threat, and some 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:25.120 believe Kim jong nam factored into his death sentence. Chang 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.160 Song Tech clearly had a favorite nephew. He and Kim 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.360 jong nam spoke on the phone regularly and shared common 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.720 goals for the country. Chang reportedly wired money to his 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:41.200 nephew and Macao. Some murmured that Change was hoping to 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:46.119 install Kim jong Nam as the next leader. Others suggested 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.360 that China was providing security for Kim jong Nam as 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.320 a favorite to Uncle Change as a thank you for 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:57.120 his Chinese friendly policies. Few know what conversations were had 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.320 in Beijing, but rumors have swirled China was taking a 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.200 close look at Kim jong Nam just in case the 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:10.880 incumbent leader needed to be well replaced. Kim Jong Nam 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.080 was an obvious choice for that, because you know, he's 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.800 known to be quite friendly to China. He was somebody 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.040 I think that China felt could be counted on and 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.360 was beholden to them, And that is why I think 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.720 he was living in Macau as well, a Chinese terror ary, 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.560 a place where he could come and go easily, but 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.600 under the protection of China. Even if China provided Kim 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.840 jong Nam with security, it didn't provide much support financially, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.200 because shortly after Uncle Tang was dispatched from this planet 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.959 with anti aircraft guns. No less, Kim Jong Nam's lavish 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.840 lifestyle began to flounder. The man who was accustomed to 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.320 staying at five star hotels and oceanside villas was now 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:03.400 desperately reserving airbnbs. Another former school friend of Kim Jong 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.880 Nam told me that Kim jong Nam seem to have 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.480 been kind of cut off from the regime finances once 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.840 Kim Jong Nun took over. For reasons that aren't clear, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.000 the revenue stream Kim jong Nam had secured running his 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:20.360 gambling sites may have dried up. He was clearly working 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.720 for a living, working for himself, and making money for himself. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.520 In the final years of his life. With Uncle Chang dead, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.920 Kim jong Nam became increasingly desperate for cash, and just 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.560 days before his assassination in February, he took one of 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.960 the biggest risks of his life, apparently in a bid 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:46.000 to make much needed money. He flew to Malaysia, away 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:50.400 from the protection of his Chinese minders, and visited Langkawi, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.680 an archipelago known for its serene, palm dazzled islands, white 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.200 sandy beaches, and turquoise waters. During his stay at a 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.280 Western hotel hell on Langkawee, security footage would catch Kim 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:08.920 jong Nam backpack and tow meeting a suspicious stranger. So 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.640 some of the last footage of Kim jong Nam showed 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:17.440 him in a hotel elevator with a man of Asian ethnicity. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.520 The man's identity is a mystery, but according to South 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:27.200 Korea's intelligence agency, the man was not some childhood friend 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.320 from Switzerland, nor a friendly comrade from back home, nor 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.120 even one of Kim jong Nam's gambling clients. He was 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:43.839 American and he worked for the c I A I'm 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.279 even lee. In this episode, we delve into the twisted 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:52.640 relationship between Kim jong Nam, the United States and North Korea, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:58.080 and a big question was Kim jong Nam an American asset? 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:03.760 And it's so did the US government know what could 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.719 happen to him? The regime has every interest to keep 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:12.400 tabs on his brother. North Korea has chemical weapons capability, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:17.080 but the willingness to use UH is there. Kim jong 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.320 Nam had been acting as an informant to the CIA, 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.160 giving them information what he knew about Kim Jong Lan 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:35.960 and the regime. This is big brother in North Korea. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.760 There may be no worse crime than working with or 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:45.000 being sympathetic to the Americans. And that's because the United 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.559 States in North Korea's eyes is public Enemy No. One. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:55.320 The DPRK's behavior, it's obsession with weapons of mass destruction, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:06:00.080 it's devotion to military first policy, even the way it 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.760 killed Kim Jong Nam, all tied into the country's tense 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:09.080 relationship with the US. But to understand why, we have 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:14.159 to go back to June the outbreak of the Korean War. 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.080 I would say, with just the slightest exaggeration, that the 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:31.000 Korean War launched modern international history. As Dr Lee explains, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.080 the Korean War transformed the United Nations from a paper 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:40.000 organization into a global force. It's why American troops are 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.039 stationed at basis in more than seventy foreign countries, and 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.720 it deepened the tensions that would come to define the 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:52.039 Cold War. The Korean War was deeply consequential, and yet 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.880 the conflict would be largely hidden from the American public. 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.640 The Korean War has long been dubbed in the United 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.760 States It's as the Forgotten War. But for the five 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.040 hundred thousand Korean War veterans still alive today from the 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.720 various countries that fought in it, very little has been forgotten, 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:18.720 especially in Korea. The war touched upon the lives of 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.480 the vast majority of the people in both South Korea 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:28.560 and North Korea in a tragic negative way. Virtually every 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.160 Korean had a family member or relative who was maimed 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:37.600 or killed or lost. Over fifteen percent of North Korean 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:43.960 civilians were sacrificed, ten million people probably displaced from home, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:49.720 hundreds of thousands of orphans. So the death toll and 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.480 the suffering, and it's one relevant factor metric, of course, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.760 But of course that doesn't tell the entire story. That 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.960 entire story really it's with the indiscriminate splitting of the 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.720 Korean peninsula at the thirty eighth parallel, the line dividing 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:10.800 North and South. So late night on August tenth, the 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:15.200 United States came up with a plan for temporarily dividing 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.880 Korea at the halfway the midway point at the thirty 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:24.080 eighth parallel, to block further advancement of the Soviet troops. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.880 So this was a proposal submitted by the United States 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.240 to stalin North and South Korea. In other words, were 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.640 inventions of other nations. No Koreans had a seat at 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.680 the table when their homeland was divided. The haphazard manner 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.000 in which the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula came to 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:48.080 take place is a source of ire for the people 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:53.000 of Korea, but the initially the intention was to say 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.480 at least half a loaf half of the Korean peninsula, 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.000 to put South Korea under the U s fere influence. 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.200 The line, however, was not something Koreans on either side 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:10.800 recognized culturally or politically, so the United States and Soviet 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:15.720 Union made a promise the division would be temporary. In 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.000 the United Nations tried to erase the dividing line and 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.320 unite the peninsula under one government with an election, but 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.119 when it came time to vote, the Soviet Union refused 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.200 to let the UN Commission cross into North Korea. Locked 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.200 out of the North, the UN decided to hold assembly 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:39.960 elections anyway, but only in the South, and with that 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:45.000 the government of South Korea was officially established and any 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:51.680 chance of uniting the peninsula peacefully vanished. And then two 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:57.439 years later, in June fifty, the Korean War began. Under 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:04.760 the strangest of circumstances, Koreans invaded Korea with the goal 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:11.920 of unifying Korea. There's no doubt who started it, Kimils 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.640 Hung and the communist North, but American officials refused to 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.200 believe the North Korean leader was actually responsible. When news 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:26.640 of the North Korean invasion of South Korea broke, President 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:32.160 Truman himself almost immediately decided to take action due to 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:38.400 a misreading of the situation. Do you too seeing North 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:44.400 Korea's invasion of the South as Stalin and Mao's ploy 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.800 viewing the North Korean leader Kim Is Sung as a 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.199 mere puppet to Stalin and Mao. In fact, the high 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:58.440 ranking State Department official said that the relationship between Stalin 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:02.440 and Kimmi Sung is exactly the same as that between 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.840 Won't Disney and Donald Duck. Kimi Song is not his 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.920 own man, and Stalin is pulling the strings. In an 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.520 effort to beat back the attack, the United Nations pour 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:20.640 troops into the peninsula, both what out of misreading the situation. 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.440 Within weeks, North Korea had nearly taken over the entire 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.319 South Korean peninsula, But with the backing of the U 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:34.440 n the South Korean military would soon receive international support. 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:41.240 Sixteen countries, including Turkey and Ethiopia, deployed military troops. Thirty 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.760 nine other countries gave financial and material support, but it 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.280 was the United States that provided the bulk of foreign 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.680 manpower and weaponry. The U n Forces, led by General 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:58.400 Douglas MacArthur, slowly began to beat back the Northern invasion. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.240 Only five is removed from World War Two. American officials 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:08.600 chose a playbook that had successfully repelled Imperial japan air power. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.760 The air force weaken the North Korean advance by targeting 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.839 the military's rear, disabling the chain of troops in charge 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.680 of supplying the front with AMMO, gasoline, and food. They 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:29.640 also heavily targeted North Korean cities. This strategy, while effective, 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:34.760 would lead to the most destructive bombing campaign in military history. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.320 As the U. S Secretary of Defense, Robert Lovett explained, 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:40.880 we keep on tearing the place apart, we can make 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.640 a most unpopular fair for the North Koreans. We ought 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.440 to go right ahead. The extent of the bombing was unimaginable. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.360 North Korea was flattened. More than five percent of the 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:58.320 country's buildings were destroyed. Some cities, like sina Ju, were 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:04.080 transformed into rubble. American pilots also targeted irrigation dans that 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.319 have provided water for three quarters of the country's crops, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:14.400 flood waters destroyed squads of farmland. Suffering ensued. With their 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:19.520 cities gone, millions of North Koreans resorted to living underground, 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:25.160 and the hell fire continued. With a new lethal innovation 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.360 that had been tested in World War Two, but now 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:36.880 in the Korean War, made its real debut, napalm. This 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.280 is what an a pound bomb does. When it hits, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.040 it's searing flames spreads four hundreds of feet. The infantrymen 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.000 then take over and advance at the crucial rate, despite 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.400 the pounding of red buckers. It is a harrowing foot 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.360 by foot operation. Deep in their trenches. There are still 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.480 plenty of the enemy and after to pour fire into 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.319 the attackers, but the flamethrower silence system at a smoke 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:02.559 screen masks the attack. Grim is the word for Korea. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:09.760 Napalm charred the countryside and the people in it. From 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.120 June to October, the US would drop more than eight 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.120 hundred sixty six thousand gallons of napalm on North Korea. 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.200 By the war's end, more napalm was dropped on the 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:29.120 DPRK than any other nation in history. Vietnam included to 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.280 be clear, we're not trying to stoke sympathy for the 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:36.200 North Korean regime, nor to excuse the terrible atrocities that 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.720 has committed both during a war it started and in 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.600 the decades since. But the widespread bombing of North Korea 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.480 is vital to understanding the country's attitude toward the United States, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.320 because while the Korean War might be forgotten in the US, 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.880 in the DPRK, the air bombardment is taught in every 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:01.920 school today. Most of North Korea as anti American propaganda 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.640 is built on easily disproved lies. But the difficult truth 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.360 is that the foundation the spark for much of this 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:15.280 anti americanism, according to journalist Blaine Harden, is quote rooted 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:21.240 in a fact based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:26.440 That lingering resentment is just one of many unintended consequences. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:32.000 Another is North Korea's obsession with weapons of mass destruction. 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.840 Because in late n the U N Forces did more 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.960 than just repel North Korean attacks. They cross the thirty 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:45.280 eighth parallel with the goal of unifying Korea for the South. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.520 But on the other side, a goliath was waiting. China 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.840 kept issuing threats. If you enter North Korean territory. If 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.440 you approach our border, we will fight you. We will 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:04.440 send true and MacArthur dismissed those Chinese threats as just 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:09.640 empty threats. But MacArthur was wrong. China did step in 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.800 not wanting Western soldiers anywhere near its border. China would 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.160 send more than three million people to North Korea's aid. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.240 General Douglas MacArthur, who believed he could win the war 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.040 with quote one hand tied behind his back, argued that 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.000 the best way to cut off the Chinese advance was 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.400 to drop nuclear weapons in Korea. I visualize a cul 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.600 de sac. I see here a unique use for the 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.960 atomic bomb to strike a blocking blow at the Pentagon. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.600 The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected MacArthur's proposal, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:52.560 but MacArthur pushed and pushed and pushed again. He'd request 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:57.120 a total of twenty six atomic bombs, and although those 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.480 requests were denied, he would remain a shameless advocate for 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.679 nuclear attack. I would have dropped between thirty and fifty 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.560 atomic bombs strung across the neck of Manchuria. The bomb 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:15.359 wasn't MacArthur's only go to. He also suggested releasing chemical weapons. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.680 Arguing that the military should spread radioactive waste across the border, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.359 creating a chemical fence that would keep Communist ground troops 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:29.560 barricaded up North. Instead, President Harry Truman would fire him 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:35.159 for in subordination, but MacArthur's replacement, General Matthew Ridgeway, was 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.720 also a fan of nuclear weapons. He would request thirty 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:45.480 eight atomic bombs. The Pentagon did not approve. It did, however, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.399 later approve of request from the Joint chiefs of Staff, who, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.080 according to Korean war scholar Bruce Cummings, ordered quote atomic 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.720 retaliation against Manchurion bases if large numbers of new troops 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:04.160 came into fighting. By ninette, the possibility of a nuclear 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:08.080 attack on North Korea seemed so inevitable that Air Force 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.600 pilots started flying practice runs dropping dummy bombs on would 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.119 be targets. By the time the armistice was signed in 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.960 nineteen fifty three, with both sides effectively agreeing to a stalemate, 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.200 North Korean civilians and leaders were paranoid about the threat 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:31.320 of nuclear annihilation, and that paranoia would only grow. By 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.840 nineteen sixty seven, the United States was storing approximately nine 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.919 hundred fifty nuclear warheads in South Korea. The United States 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.960 removed the last of these weapons from the peninsula, but 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:50.320 to this day, submarines and stations nearby provide a so 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:56.720 called nuclear umbrella, and that fact has fueled North Korea's 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.359 decision making. It isn't irrational for North kore you to 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:04.600 think it might need um greater security. That again is 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.960 Jenny Town of the Simpsons Center. The nuclear attack is possible, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.320 they don't rule it out. It's you know, during the 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.520 Korean War, UM, the US did threaten to use nuclear weapons, 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.600 and there have been in the past US nuclear weapons, 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.679 you know, stationed in South Korea, and there is the 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.119 US nuclear umbrella, right, So there are reasons. It's a 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:33.680 small country in the middle of economic and political giants, um, 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.119 and it's a country that doesn't necessarily have any real allies, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:42.000 you know, it has a relationship with the Chinese, relationship 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.800 with the Russians. Doesn't really trust that, you know, in 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.960 the case of something happening, not really. And you're looking 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:53.359 at a nuclear dense region as well, right, China has 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.439 nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear weapons, US has nuclear weapons, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.680 and South Korea and Japan have nuclear weapons by default, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:05.520 So there is a sense of insecurity that drives a 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.600 lot of their decisions. The North Koreans look at the 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.240 history um and especially you know from the Korean War 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:17.320 on and say that it's possible, no matter where you 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:21.520 go in Korea, North or South, you cannot escape the 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:26.240 dynamics created by the Korean War and the antagonistic relationship 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.359 that followed. It's one of the reasons North Korea is 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:35.360 constantly rattling its saber, trying to look tough. It's one 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:39.800 of the reasons Kimill's hung embraced che later investing obscene 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.600 portions of his country's GDP to build up one of 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.840 the world's largest militaries. And it's why North Korea has 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:51.040 worked so hard to develop its own deterrent, a deterrent 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.320 that Kim jong nam was well aware of because remember 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:01.480 his rendezvous in Langkawee, Malaysia. A few days after that 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:05.280 hotel meeting with an American spy, Kim Jong Nam would 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.919 try to leave the country with multiple vials of an 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.200 antidote designed to combat the toxic nerve agent v X. 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.760 Kim Jong Nam knew something, and that's this. When Western 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:23.600 Powers began installing nuclear weapons in South Korea, the DPRK, 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.800 then two Poor to counteract the arsenal with atomic bombs 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:32.000 of its own, came up with a strategy one they 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.080 believed that could neuter the US is atomic power. North 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:41.159 Korea would build a stockpile of chemical weapons so large 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.240 it could end all human life as we know it, 0:21:45.440 --> 0:22:02.080 and North Korea wouldn't be afraid to use it. In 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.560 the nineteen fifties, as blood and bombs spilled over the 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.919 Korean Peninsula, chemists in the United Kingdom were waging a 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:17.520 very different kind of battle against insects. The pesticide industry 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:22.440 was booming and Dr Ron J. Ghosh, a chemist working 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.680 for Imperial Chemical Industries in gelts Hill, England, was looking 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:32.399 for chemicals that could kill common pests, specifically mits. Ghost 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.560 was directed to look closely at secret research on a 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.040 group of toxic pesticides called g agents, which have been 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:43.160 developed by German scientists during the nineteen thirties. Glos went 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.680 to work, and in nineteen fifty two, at the height 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:51.240 of the Korean War, he and a fellow chemist named J. F. Newman, 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.719 discovered a substance an organo phosphate esther of substitute amino 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:03.200 ethiol called Amaton. The men celebrated the discovery. Ghost was 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.760 convinced he had found the pesticide to end all pesticides. 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:15.040 Advertisers believed it too. By Amaton was being marketed across 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.919 the United Kingdom as the next great bug killer, but 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.760 within three years it would be pulled off the shelves. 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:29.879 Turns out Amaton was much more than an insecticide. It 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.680 was a nerve agent. So Ghosh went back to work. 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.359 He continued trying to turn the Nazi G agents into 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:43.080 effective and safe pesticides, but every time he attempted to 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:48.800 discover a less toxic substance, he failed. In fact, each 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:53.800 new advancement seemed to make the G agents more toxic. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:24:01.040 The most noxious, most deadly, most terrified rying agent Ghosh 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:05.280 concocted would be so potent that only a few milligrams 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:09.600 were needed to kill a human. It would be named 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:20.479 Venomous Agent X. Today it's just called v X. And 0:24:20.560 --> 0:24:26.000 that is where our stories collide. Because during the Korean War, 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:30.040 as American planes rain bombs and bullets on North Korean cities, 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.200 Kimilsung directed his military to build a labyrinth of underground 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:38.879 tunnels and bunkers for protection. North Korea hasn't stopped digging 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:43.760 since you might remember our friend historian Benjamin Young. They 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:48.320 remembered the years of the US air bombardment, and so 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:50.640 there's a reason why North Korea has built so many 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:55.879 of its military facilities under the ground, in mountainous ravines, 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:01.280 under mountains. They have a massive tunnel system. So North 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:06.280 Korea's history has made it into this very deeply paranoid, 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:12.720 almost subterranean system. Today, it's estimated that North Korea has 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:18.440 up to fifteen thousand underground layers acting as aircraft hangars, 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:24.040 material depots, and weapons storage facilities. It's believed the majority 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:29.280 of the country's military supplies are protected by these underground bunkers. 0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:33.200 I think that one day, perhaps the regime will collapse 0:25:33.240 --> 0:25:36.280 and we'll go then and we'll see just how huge 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:40.280 their tunnel system was underneath the ground, and just how 0:25:40.440 --> 0:25:44.000 prepared they were for any sort of airbombardment. And that 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:46.000 might be one of the secrets that Kim Jong nam 0:25:46.119 --> 0:25:49.639 was harboring as the son of the dear leader. He 0:25:49.760 --> 0:25:52.960 knew that these underground cities held North Korea's war chests 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:58.440 of chemical weapons, including what maybe the largest stockpile of 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:04.800 VX nerve agent in the world. Today, North Koreas cash 0:26:04.800 --> 0:26:08.399 of chemical weapons is the world's third largest, lagging behind 0:26:08.480 --> 0:26:11.560 only the US and Russia. The country is home to 0:26:11.640 --> 0:26:15.600 at least eleven chemical weapons facilities, almost all of them 0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:19.000 buried underground, that may produce and store up to five 0:26:19.040 --> 0:26:24.200 thousand metric tons of these deadly agents. But truth be told, 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:28.560 nobody certain how much they really have. North Korea has 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:32.320 um you know, chemical weapons capability, the extent of which 0:26:32.359 --> 0:26:36.720 we don't really know, but the willingness to use uh 0:26:36.920 --> 0:26:40.159 is there. We do, however, have a good idea of 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:49.440 what's in North Korea's stockpile. Anthrax, smallpox, amaton, mustard, gas saren, 0:26:50.280 --> 0:26:57.040 the plague, and yes, VX agent, all of which are 0:26:57.160 --> 0:27:01.520 ready for their neighbors to the south or anyone else 0:27:01.560 --> 0:27:04.960 who messes with them near their turf. North Korea has 0:27:05.119 --> 0:27:08.440 the capability of attaching you know, chemical weapons, even to 0:27:08.520 --> 0:27:12.720 their short range ballistic missiles. Chemill Song was right to 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:17.840 bet on chemical weapons. Chemical missiles are cheaper and potentially 0:27:18.000 --> 0:27:22.760 more lethal than nuclear warheads. It would only take one 0:27:22.800 --> 0:27:29.240 gallon of anthrax to end all human life. Indeed, for decades, 0:27:29.840 --> 0:27:34.399 this chemical stockpile has been a remarkable deterrent and a 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:39.040 threatening bargaining chip. The US won't use its nukes because 0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:42.320 that would compel the North to release its chemical weapons, 0:27:42.880 --> 0:27:45.800 and the North won't use its chemical weapons because that 0:27:45.800 --> 0:27:49.200 would compel the US to use its nukes. It's led 0:27:49.240 --> 0:27:53.719 to a strategic standoff, a menacing game of chicken that 0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:58.560 allows North Korea to act belligerent lee with few consequences. 0:27:59.560 --> 0:28:05.560 Anything else would be catastrophic. In the n nineties, the 0:28:05.600 --> 0:28:08.840 Pentagon calculated the cost of a pre emptive strike on 0:28:08.920 --> 0:28:13.040 North Korea. The results suggested that an attack would cost 0:28:13.080 --> 0:28:16.600 the US more than a trillion dollars and require at 0:28:16.680 --> 0:28:21.120 least a hundred thousand body bags just for American troops alone. 0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:25.080 The potential loss of life in a second Korean conflict 0:28:25.400 --> 0:28:28.800 is you know, millions of people. You have. You have 0:28:28.880 --> 0:28:32.040 to remember that Soul the capital of South Korea. It's 0:28:32.080 --> 0:28:35.160 only thirty miles away from the d m z Um 0:28:35.200 --> 0:28:37.840 and about a quarter of the population lives there. Um 0:28:37.880 --> 0:28:41.680 The response time that it takes to defend Soul and 0:28:41.720 --> 0:28:44.560 the amount of damage that can be done very quickly 0:28:45.080 --> 0:28:48.960 is enormously high. This standoff has done more than preserved 0:28:48.960 --> 0:28:53.640 North Korea's existence. It's been a boon to the country's economy. 0:28:53.840 --> 0:28:58.320 It essentially uses weapons of mass destruction to extort foreign 0:28:58.400 --> 0:29:04.840 countries into lifting ancients. It's also a valuable export. These 0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:08.840 chemical weapons can be shipped rogue nations and terrorist groups. 0:29:09.200 --> 0:29:12.959 North Korea never really admits to having chemical weapons are 0:29:12.960 --> 0:29:16.680 actually using it. That again is Sue Kim, our ex 0:29:16.800 --> 0:29:22.040 CIA analyst. But we know that it's actually tried to 0:29:22.120 --> 0:29:25.680 transfer chemical weapons to other countries. It's got the technology 0:29:25.720 --> 0:29:29.160 and equipment, so it should be a concern. In fact, 0:29:29.680 --> 0:29:34.560 we know that North Korea exported chemical equipment to Syria 0:29:34.880 --> 0:29:39.360 coincidentally around the same time Syrian President Bashar al Assad 0:29:39.600 --> 0:29:44.920 was gassing his own citizens. Meanwhile, in the US, there's 0:29:44.960 --> 0:29:49.040 practically no VX at all in accordance with the Chemical 0:29:49.080 --> 0:29:54.520 Weapons Convention in agreement North Korea disregards the United States 0:29:54.600 --> 0:29:58.560 has destroyed almost all of its stock of VX. Today, 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:03.000 one of America's largest collections of VX rockets. It's resting 0:30:03.160 --> 0:30:06.440 at the bottom of the ocean, just off the coast 0:30:06.480 --> 0:30:10.880 of Atlantic City, New Jersey. All of that's to say, 0:30:11.000 --> 0:30:14.600 while North Korea is nuclear weapons get most of the attention. 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:18.240 Perhaps it's time the country's chemical arsenal commands more of 0:30:18.280 --> 0:30:23.320 our scrutiny. We do talk constantly about the came regime's 0:30:23.560 --> 0:30:27.440 missile development, the provocations and those are all of course 0:30:27.720 --> 0:30:33.560 valid um incredible security concerns, but the chemical warfare component 0:30:33.880 --> 0:30:38.440 um the cyber components, I think are just as deadly 0:30:38.800 --> 0:30:43.680 and in some cases even more deadly. The chemical weapons 0:30:44.280 --> 0:30:50.040 in combination with the ballistic missiles, can lead to, I 0:30:50.040 --> 0:30:55.240 would say, much more broader, far reaching implications than the 0:30:55.400 --> 0:30:58.600