there were 104 men on board. 46 of them were never found. 46 men dead. officially, the cause of the torpedoing that ship is still in dispute but the u.s. and south korea both believe it was a north korean torpedo. the covert lethal action that was masterminded by the head of the reconnaissance general bureau, by kim yong chol. later that same year north korea launched app artillery barrage at an inhabited south korean island. civilians were moved into bunkers. but still, four people were killed. 19 people were injured. north korea shot dozens of shells at that island. that attack coming right on the heels, just a few months after north korea apparently torpedoed that south korean ship and killed more than 40 of their sailors. those two deadly incidents in close proximity brought those two countries very close to the brink of war. they were shooting at each other. that second attack where they bombed the island, that was also attributed to kim yong chol, the
preparation we found out like an hour in advance that he might pop by. he did pop by, stayed for a couple hours. did he bring anyone with him? did president trump give up any code word protected super top secret intelligence like he gave to the russians when he surprise hosted them in the oval office? did kim yong chol have any equipment with him when he was brought into the oval office? even like in his pocket? did he leave you a thumb drive? tell you it was a really fun game, you should plug it in, see what happens? mr. president, did he ask to see your phone? is the president still using an unsecured phone like we were told last week he was? was that phone in the oval office when the north korean military intelligence chief was there in the oval office for a exult of hours today? i mean, maybe our government knows exactly what they are doing here.
advantages. it allows those north koreans to launch north korean cyberattacks from other geographic locations. which is helpful in terms of avoiding accountability. but it also lets those north korean de facto spies, it lets them learn about international innovations in the cyber warfield and it turns out when they compete around the world they are as good as anyone or better. in 2015 at a global hacking competition that s called code chef, 7,600 teams competing from all over the world. at code chef 2015 north korean teams came in first, second, and third place out of more than 7,000 teams competing worldwide. that s what kim yong chol built. so for people who follow this stuff closely, particularly national security and in foreign policy who have watched north korea not just for its nuclear program but have watched north
government once kim jong un assumed office in 2011. so this guy is estimable. right? this is a guy worth taking seriously. this is the highest-ranking north korean who s been allowed to visit north korea in 20 years. the immediate former head of the north korean intelligence service who in fact built that service. are you sure this is definitely the one guy you who want to let in? are you sure there s no particular risk about him in particular coming over here? i mean, technically there is the matter of him being sanctioned multiple times personally by the u.s. government. legally he s not even technically allowed to set foot in this country. but there he was. eating filet mignon and vanilla ice cream we re told with mike pompeo at some new york restaurant last night. and then this afternoon we got this note. kim yong chol will meet briefly with potus in the oval. what?
head of the reconnaissance general bureau, the head of north korean military intelligence. so when it comes to power in north korea, we all know about kim jong un and about his dad kim jong il and about his dad kim il sung. this hereditary dictatorship. and dictatorships have a way of focusing attention only on the dear leader at the top. but when it comes to what america knows and what the world knows about north korea s capacity to attack, its capacity to exert force against others, what we know about its attacks on other countries, its attacks on u.s. companies and banks and all the other people who they ve attacked through their military intelligence service, the other person to know about is kim yong chol. the head of north korean military intelligence. the guy who has built this massive international hacking empire. he has been sanctioned multiple