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NIS
have known for a number of years about several sites where North
Korea was supposedly doing nuclear research. But all of those sites
were decoys. We have suspected for some time that they must be
doing most of their research and bomb building in one secret
location. This is for a number of reasons. They only have a handful
of nuclear scientists, so it would make sense for them to be all in
one place rather than spread out. Also with the electricity
shortages and power outages they have, it would be easiest for them
to do all their research in one place and be sure to provide that
location with the power they need. Lastly, after years of UN
inspections and negotiations, they know that the world is watching
them closely. So they likely wanted to have a secret facility where
they could do research covertly to avoid scrutiny. Mr. Park’s
officer – what was his code name?”
    “ Officer 1414” Park
replied.
    “ Officer 1414 was working
on finding that facility and as a secondary mission, he was tasked
with determining their level of nuclear capability. Three days ago,
he messaged that he was going to meet a cousin of a regime insider.
He had that meeting two days ago and we believe he was told the
location of the facility and possibly what was in it. The message
he sent back was the following – I’ll read it to you:
     
    ‘ 41.160167,129.612440.
Mission accomplished. Officer 1414 compromised. Last resort will be
used. Error in how we think about Jewels.’
    Everyone except Tom squinted his or her eyes
and looked in different directions as if it made thinking easier.
Tom sat motionless. Anderson went on.
    “ Obviously ‘mission
accomplished’ means he figured out this facility’s location. The
numbers seem to be GPS coordinates which we can pull up on the map
here.”
    Anderson moved behind Matt as he typed the
GPS coordinates into the mapping program. The big screen zoomed in
on an area in the Northeastern part of North Korea. The spot was
south of the city of Chongjin and North of Kilju. It was hundreds
of miles on the other side of the peninsula from Pyongyang. The
spot was in the middle of what looked like a forest in a hilly or
slightly mountainous area. The group leaned forward in their chairs
and squinted their eyes further. The location 1414 gave looked like
a simple dirt plot.
    “ This is not just a pile of
dirt in the middle of nowhere,” Anderson went on. “This spot in the
center we have identified as a structure – probably containing an
elevator and a set of stairs. We believe this is the entrance to
the facility. About a mile away, we can see the presence of trucks,
which are rare in this number in North Korea. They look like they
are loading and unloading something. Our satellites have also seen
troop movements in the area. The military presence is mostly the
counter-intelligence unit of the Korean People’s Army, or KPA. We
can tell this from the type of uniform they wear and the weapons
they carry. This strange facility seems to be completely
underground.”
    Sara was always impressed with the level of
satellite imagery the SAD routinely saw. The number of US
Government imagery satellites was classified and only a few people
knew exactly how many there were – maybe Anderson was one of them.
But these satellites were so powerful that they could spot a golf
ball on the ground and read whether it was a Titleist or
TaylorMade. This is how the imagery analysts at the agency had
figured out what uniforms and weapons the local military had.
    Sara also knew the
significance that the soldiers were KPA counter-intelligence. In
totalitarian regimes all spies and secret police were trained as
military officers. Tom and the other SAD officers came from
military backgrounds, but most of the conventional espionage force
at the CIA did not. In totalitarian countries, intelligence and
counter-intelligence are military-like activities. These states are
mainly focused on protecting their regimes from threats