The CIA had its hand in the raid on the North Korean embassy in Spain, local media report citing investigation sources. If confirmed, the development might lead to a major spat between Spain and the US. At least two of the 10 perpetrators, who broke into the embassy, have been identified and are connected with the Central Intelligence Agency, El Pais reported Wednesday. While the US spies have already denied their involvement, they were quite “unconvincing,” government sources told the newspaper. Read more If the CIA’s role in the whole affair is confirmed, it might lead to a major diplomatic spat between Madrid and Washington, as this is not exactly what one expects from an “ally.” Involvement of common criminals in the incident was ruled out shortly after it happened, as the whole operation resembled a hit job by a “military cell.” The bizarre – and movie-like – incident occurred on February 22, when a group of men attacked the North Korea's mission to Spain, located in Madrid. The attackers restrained and gagged the staff and then rummaged through the embassy for some four hours, stealing computers and other electronic devices. One of the employees managed to escape and alerted the neighbors, who called the police. When law enforcement arrived, however, they were reportedly greeted by an individual, who reassured them everything was fine at the diplomatic facility. Shortly afterwards, the suspects drove out of the embassy in two stolen vehicles and got away, dumping the cars in a street. Police then discovered the mission's staff, who were bound, gagged and had bags on their heads. Several diplomats required medical attention after the incident due to minor injuries. While the attack was widely reported by local media, the embassy did not provide any statement. The perpetrators may have been looking for information on the former ambassador of North Korea to Spain – Kym Hyok Chol. The diplomat served at the facility for years, yet he was expelled back in 2017 amid consecutive nuclear tests held by Pyongyang. He later joined the country's negotiator team and participated in organizing the Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam – which failed just five days after the Madrid incident. Also on rt.com ‘Some sort of fantasy’: Mysterious group declares itself N. Korean ‘government-in-exile’ Like this story? Share it with a friend!<doc-sep>A Spanish National Police car sits outside the North Korean Embassy in Madrid on Feb. 28. (Photo: Sergio Perez/Reuters) When a bleeding woman ran down the street in a leafy suburb of Madrid, pointing at the nearby North Korean embassy and screaming about masked invaders, local police at first thought she was crazy. Now they suspect the mysteries of that day are linked to the CIA, report Spanish media outlets El Confidencial and El Pais. A hush-hush and ongoing Spanish investigation into a violent break-in claims that on Feb. 22, 10 armed men in masks reportedly scaled the side of Pyongyang’s isolated Embassy in the Spanish capital and assaulted and interrogated staff before absconding with papers and computer devices. The break-in occurred just five days before President Trump met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. North Korea’s embassy is currently without a formal head since its former ambassador, Kim Hyok Chol, was declared persona non grata and flown out of Spain 18 months earlier as part of international condemnation of his country’s nuclear testing. The enigmatic embassy break-in took a dramatic new twist this week when it was leaked to Spanish digital newspaper El Confidencial that upon studying the embassy’s security cameras, investigators had identified two of the subjects as being linked to the CIA. What’s more, according to subsequent reporting, the assailants were carrying “imitation weapons,” while further police investigation revealed that the embassy itself held “an arsenal” of arms, described as a vast quantity of rifles, shotguns and handguns, in a country where ownership of arms is heavily restricted. Additionally, investigators believe a transformer fire outside the embassy may be linked to the break-in, according to El Confidencial. The strange saga is confounding experts on intelligence and diplomacy across the U.S., Europe and North Korea about what the motivation behind the intrusion may have been — many casting doubt that the U.S. spy agency would get mixed up in such a potentially thorny diplomatic snarl in Spain. Story continues The CIA declined to comment. But multiple former U.S. intelligence officials and national security experts told Yahoo News they would be surprised if the agency participated in or directed the break-in. David Maxwell, a former Special Operations officer who served in Asia for more than 20 years, told Yahoo News that “based on the reports, I would be very skeptical that this was a U.S.-conducted operation.” “This sounds like keystone cops to me,” wrote John Nixon, a former senior leadership analyst at the CIA who briefed senior government officials on foreign leaders, including the Kims of North Korea. “The risk aversion the CIA feels for such [an] overt act would most certainly kick in and cause such a plan to die on the drawing board.” “The agency sometimes makes mistakes and I am sure the Trump administration has told them to not feel encumbered by the usual constraints when it comes to [North Korea,]” continued Nixon in an email. “But this sounds kind of ridiculous.” Indeed, the events that reportedly transpired inside the embassy appear ripped from a movie script. Once inside the sparsely furnished three-story building with an adjacent swimming pool, the assailants — reportedly Asian and speaking in Korean — tied up embassy staff, as well as a visiting group of North Korean architects, putting hoods over their heads, and physically assaulted them as they interrogated them. The subject of their questions isn’t publicly known, although the chief diplomat, So Yun Sok, reportedly told the police that they grilled him about the departed ambassador and information he’d left behind in Madrid. According to local media reports, after two hours of captivity, a woman escaped from a window and ran to a nearby nursing home. When police arrived, she appeared dazed from a head wound and unable to communicate in Spanish what had happened. When officers finally discerned what she was saying, one of them approached the embassy’s front door, which was opened by an Asian man who assured the police that there was no problem within. Moments later, however, police were startled as embassy gates swung open and the men, carrying computers, phones and documents, raced out in two luxury vehicles with diplomatic license plates — cars that were soon discovered abandoned not far away. Entering the building, police discovered the traumatized, tied-up and hooded staff members and called emergency medical personnel to the scene. A woman walks past North Korea's Embassy in Madrid on Feb. 28. (Photo: Manu Fernandez/AP) Neither the embassy nor the victims have filed police reports on the matter, and initially investigators, who did not believe it was been a common burglary, pondered whether the matter involved South Korea — and whether it was tied to the upcoming summit with the U.S. and North Korean leaders — a meeting that the former ambassador was reportedly involved in planning. If in fact there was CIA involvement in the break-in, it would not have been a simple act of espionage, according to those familiar with covert operations. Among other complexities are the legal authorities necessary to conduct such a covert operation in Spain. Maxwell told Yahoo News that an operation in Madrid involving violent altercations or interrogations with embassy staff members would almost certainly require what’s known as a presidential finding to support a covert activity in support of vital U.S. foreign policy goals. It’s also unclear if the brazen theft of embassy documents would be the best method of collecting intelligence on the North Korean Embassy. According to documents from 2010 published by German outlet Der Spiegel from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Madrid is listed as one of the sites where the Special Collection Service — a joint NSA and CIA unit designed to listen in on hard-to-reach targets — is based. In places like Madrid, the unit will often use antennas or other kinds of interception technology disguised on the roof or outside of the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in the country. That interception technology is capable of picking up cellphone and radio frequencies “within a one hundred mile radius,” according to intelligence historian Matthew Aid.<doc-sep>The Cheollima group, which also goes by the name Free Joseon, drew attention in 2017 after it successfully evacuated the nephew of Kim Jong Un from Macau when potential threats to his life surfaced. The nephew was the son of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader’s exiled half brother who was assassinated in a nerve-gas attack in a Malaysian airport that same year. Kim Jong Nam was widely believed to have been killed by the regime, making his son a likely target.<doc-sep>Spanish investigators have reportedly linked the CIA to an attack on the North Korean embassy in Madrid last month. A group of 10 assailants broke into the embassy on 22 February, tying up eight members of staff before beating and interrogating them. The attackers also took computers and mobile phones from the embassy. Sources close to the investigation told Spanish newspaper El Pais they had identified at least two of the attackers as having connections with the CIA. The newspaper said the CIA had denied involvement but its sources in the government said they found the US intelligence agency’s response “unconvincing”. North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Participants wave flowers AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (R) waves with China's Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu (L) from a balcony AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Airplanes forming the number 70 fly in formation and fire flares AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korean performers dance EPA North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korean military officers applaud near portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korean tanks roll past AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers take part AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers march AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Participants march during a mass rally on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary A girl reacts during a parade AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, reacts as he chats with China's third highest ranking official, Li Zhanshu AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary People carry flags in front of statues of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung (L) and late leader Kim Jong Il Reuters North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Performers take part in a concert at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium AFP/Getty North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary North Korean artillery roll past AP North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Students perform Reuters North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Soldiers march during a military parade Reuters North Korea military parade celebrating nation's 70th anniversary Participants wave flowers AFP/Getty During the break-in, one woman managed to get free and escaped through a second floor window and a neighbour who heard her screams contacted the police. But when they arrived on the scene they were turned away by a man at the door of the embassy who told them nothing was going on. Minutes later, the assailants sped away in two North Korean diplomatic vehicles which were later found abandoned nearby. Inside the embassy, officers found eight people who had been tied up with bags over their heads for two hours. Two needed medical attention. Sources told El Pais investigators from the Spanish police and secret service (CNI) believe the operation was planned perfectly, as if by a “military cell”. They reportedly suspect the attackers were hunting for information on Kim Hyok-chol, the former North Korean ambassador to Spain who has since played a role in organising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s meeting with Donald Trump in Vietnam. ✕ North Korea's foreign minister disputes President Trump's explanation for summit collapse Kim Hyok-chol was expelled from Spain in September 2017 in retaliation for North Korea’s nuclear missile tests. He has since led the North Korean delegation that negotiated with the US in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. A spokesperson for Spain’s Ministry of the Interior said they do not comment on ongoing investigations. The Independent has contacted the CIA for comment.<doc-sep>
Spanish intelligence officials said have suggested the CIA was involved in a break-in at the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month where diplomatic staff members were bound and held hostage, reports claim. Local newspaper El Pais reported Wednesday that investigators have identified two of the 10 assailants who broke into the embassy and said they have connections to the CIA – a claim the intelligence agency has denied. “Although most of the [attackers] were Korean, at least two of them have been identified by Spanish intelligence services as having links to the U.S. CIA,” the newspaper reported. The paper said Spanish authorities raised the matter with the CIA, which reportedly denied involvement, “but not in a very convincing matter. Spain’s El Confidencial, which broke the news of the incident, also reported Wednesday that Spanish officials have linked two assailants to the CIA. SPANISH POLICE INVESTIGATE INCIDENT AT NORTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN MADRID THAT LEFT WOMAN HURT National police in Madrid launched an investigation into the Feb. 22 incident after officers assisted a North Korean woman with unspecified injuries. The Spanish Interior Ministry said at the time that neither North Korean diplomats nor other government officials had filed a complaint. El Confidencial reported that the woman was one of the workers who was bound and gagged by the unidentified assailants. According to officials, the assailants bound and gagged eight people, beat them and interrogated them before the woman managed to escape from a window. Her screams for help were heard by neighbors, who called the police. VIETNAM URGES MALAYSIA TO RELEASE SECOND SUSPECT IN KIM JONG NAM NERVE AGENT KILLING The assailants, with a number of computers on hand, fled in two luxury vehicles that belonged to the diplomatic mission and were later abandoned in a nearby street. At least two of the diplomatic workers required medical attention, El Pais reported. Investigators have said the attack was not the work of common criminals. GET THE FOX NEWS APP The incident, still under investigation, occurred five days before President Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. Fox News' Katherine Lam and the Associated Press contributed to this report.