it was a chaotic time but we were told we would learn more details. and we did shortly before the interview when a man walked through the doors of a hotel conference room with a very complex and uncorroborated story of espionage. days after north korea s nuclear test shocked the world, a new diplomatic bombshell. kim dong chul says he s an american citizen who used to live in fairfax, virginia. north korea calls him a spy accused of stealing nuclear and military secrets. pyongyang authorities order kim to speak to us in korean. he seems aware our conversation is likely being listened to. i committed an act of espionage against north korea, he says. i gathered information about its nuclear program and military facilities. kim says north korean agents arrested him three months ago seizing a usb drive, camera and documents with details of north korea s nuclear program. cnn cannot determine whether kim is making his statements under duress. he says he was not spying for
rights story but reporting here continues to be tightly controlled. in a flashback to our visit in may we were led through our hotel lobby to this room not knowing who would be rating. reporter: we find them waiting patiently in a hotel conference room. eight north koreans. each asked to be here. each asked to defend their country and supreme leader kim jong-un. this defector says they were treated like state-sponsored slaves working grueling hours in the middle east with most or all of their compensation going back to the north korean government. he knows nothing about the reality on the ground says this former colleague. he stayed in kuwait just a few months. he was a bad worker. he was lazy says this man, claims the defector denies.
from malaysian embassy officials and requesting details about the investigation into the plane. amid tears and fury, an elderly man collapses. the standoff in a hotel conference room goes on for nearly eight hours, until families suddenly decide to walk out into the night. they push past police on a midnight march to the embassy of malaysia, an unusual late-night procession followed closely by squad cars. what do you concretely want from the malaysian government right now? the truth, the thing they re hiding. reporter: it s around 2:00 in the morning, and the police have kept us away from the silent protests at the gates of the malaysian embassy in what they describe as the journalist section, this roped-off-piste of sidewalk. the next of kin have clearly been pushed to the limits by
incredible, john. in the week that i ve been here in beijing with these families you know, last week, the malaysian officials tried to set up a video conference with a team of technical experts in kuala lumpur. all the chinese relatives gathered in a hotel conference room. there was a big screen, and there was a technical glitch. there was no audio, and the two sides couldn t hear each other, and the chinese families stormed out in anger out of the hall. and then, the malaysian officials promised to bring a team of technical experts to answer questions about the last moments that the plane was believed to be in the air, before it s believed to have crashed into the indian ocean. they were supposed to sit down with the chinese families on monday here at beijing s lido hotel, and instead, what happened? another last-minute change of plans. a malaysian diplomat sat down in front of a packed conference room and said, you know what, the malaysian government has decided now is not the time
reporter: good morning, john. the prayer service was here at this hotel in beijing, actually, just a few hours ago, and it was really a heartbreaking scene, i have to say. you had maybe around 30 husbands and wives of chinese passengers who were aboard that missing malaysian airlines flight sitting on the floor of a hotel conference room, many of them weeping and sobbing as some prayer music was played, sitting in front of a sign that said honey, i don t want to live one more day without you. so, just an anguished scene there. and if you can imagine these people who have been experiencing this terrible ordeal for more than 40 days, waiting to hear some kind of answer as to what has happened to their loved ones. many of them, i m told, still believing that their loved ones are alive somewhere out there,