The facts are mysterious and opaque. A documentary filmmaker, Mads Brügger, a chef Ulrich Larsen and a former legionnaire and cocaine trafficker Jim Latrache-Qvortrup conducted a sting operation having gained the trust of a North Korean diplomat in Sweden named as Mr Ri who asked the chef and the legionnaire to acquire a “variety pack of bovine sperm”. The sperm was to come from Danish beef cattle of various breeds which would then be transported from the embassy in Stockholm and then to the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. Mads Brügger was the mastermind behind the operation. That’s my understanding of this strange event.
It’s an example of how North Korea has had to use their guile to import products when under heavy UN sanctions. It was an undercover sting by Larsen and Latrache-Qvortrup who used John le Carré novels and lessons in counter surveillance from a former CIA spy to target the Korean Friendship Association.
It was an absurd discussion. It’s not in the film because people would definitely think that it has to be fiction.
The sting could have been part of of a documentary film: The Mole: Undercover in North Korea which is available on BBC iPlayer but the filmmaker considered the purchase of bovine sperm to be too strange to be believed and therefore it wasn’t included. They are going to hand over the intelligence that they gathered to the UN but expectedly North Korea has claimed that it is all a fabrication.
The documentary filmmaker also filmed on hidden cameras another scheme in which North Korea would acquire long-range missiles. They were also looking at securing a contract to build an hidden armaments and methamphetamine factory on a Ugandan holiday island.
Postscripts: (1) Regulation bull semen is sold for less than £15 of dose. However the most sought after specimens can be worth £4,000 and (2) I have assumed that such acts come from the top i.e. Kim himself.
Source: The Times which I had difficulty in fathoming. Definitely opaque. If I have the facts incorrect I apologise. Please leave a comment if corrections are demanded.
