According to a former North Korean diplomat who appears to have defected to date, North Korea has offered Israel the possibility to stop selling missile technology to Iran and other enemies. in exchange for 1 billion dollars.
The bank account, where the hefty sum would be credited, was revealed in "Password from the Third Floor", a book published earlier this year by Thae Yong Ho. Thae, a member of a prominent North Korean family, defected with his wife and children in 2016 while serving as a senior diplomatic staff member at the North Korean embassy in London.
News of Thae's defection emerged on August 16, 2016, when a South Korean newspaper reported that she disappeared from London after fleeing with her family "to a third country". He later emerged in Seoul, from where he publicly denounced the North Korean regime.
Now Thae has written a book about his experiences as a North Korean diplomat from a family close to the country's ruling dynasty.
In his memoir, Thae claims to have acted as a translator during a series of meetings between Son Mu Sin and Gideon Ben Ami, respectively North Korean and Israeli ambassadors to Sweden. The alleged meetings took place in secret in the winter of 1999 in Stockholm. During the first meeting, Son allegedly told Ben Ami that Pyongyang had a series of deals to sell ballistic missile technology and know-how to Israel's enemies, such as Syria, Pakistan and Iran. However, the North Korean government would have offered to withdraw the deals in exchange for $ 1 billion in cash from Israel.
Ben Ami is said to have told the North Korean counterpart that he would send his offer to the Israeli government. Three days later, Thae said, the two men would hold another secret meeting, during which the North Korean ambassador was told that Israel was unwilling to pay $ 1 billion in cash to Pyongyang but would offer humanitarian aid of equal value. But according to Thae, the North Koreans refused the offer and "the talks ended without reaching an agreement".
According to Thae, North Korea therefore continued to provide missile and nuclear technology to Syria and Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported that it contacted the government of Israel asking several questions that arose from Thae's account of the alleged diplomatic exchange in 1999, receiving no response. As reported by "The Journal", Ben Ami, during a recent television interview, said he had participated in three meetings with a group of North Korean officials in 1999, but did not reveal the names of the diplomats and the contents of the conversations.