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 times for his role in the north korean nuclear program. he s been sanctioned multiple times for his role in attacks on our allies and on the west. and he did build his country s military intelligence service into an international powerhouse. when he took over, north korea was still trying bad counterfeiting as the
hours today in what was apparently an impromptu meeting for which there was no 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?
and then this afternoon we got this note. kim yong chol will meet briefly with potus in the oval. what? that news moved at about 1:00 this afternoon. and then infrastructure he did show up. and it was not a brief meeting with the president in the oval office. it was nearly two hours. and you know, from a distance without captions on what you re looking at here, he s this quiet-seeming older gentleman. sort of a short guy compared to our tall president. he was described today in all the press as the vice chair of the north korean central committee. oh, that sounds nice. he s on a committee. actually, he s the top rnkds spy in the north korean government and has been for a very long time. he headed military intelligence for the past seven years and he built the world s most elite hacking and cyberespionage service from scratch in a country where no one even has the internet. oh, and on top of that there s all the killing. so when you let that guy into the oval office for a couple of
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 korea in this very short period of time turn into this global cyberwar, cyberespionage powerhouse it was a remarkable and very specific thing when it was announced that north korea
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 korea in this very short period of time turn into this global cyberwar, cyberespionage powerhouse it was a remarkable and very specific thing when it was announced that north korea would be sending somebody to the u.s. to talk to the trump administration. they d be sending a high-ranking official to new york city to have dinner with mike pompeo. and it was announced the guy they would be sending is kim yong chol. the guy you see on the right side of your screen there. this was the headline of foreignpolicy.com.