“You know the penalty if you are caught,” cautioned Yong.
“Of course I do.” He leant forward. “I can quite easily get the information together which they will need, although it will take some time to compile. I believe that they will come to collect it if I say the word, and that they may even now have people in this country who act as agents.”
“Spies do you mean?”
“Perhaps. I became quite good friends with one of the officials during my short stay, and I believe he will arrange to keep in touch. He almost said so in as many words when I left.”
“Do you trust him?”
“I trusted them all,” replied Shin. “And they trusted me. I was allowed to go where I liked, to do what I liked, to see what I liked. Once I had dodged our ‘escort’, I could leave the Hotel on my own and without having to gain permission. In this country it is strictly forbidden for foreigners to do that. I walked freely round Oxford, sat at a café drinking tea, visited one of the most famous libraries in the world, and nobody bothered. I was not followed, and I was not asked where I had been or what I had done. If there had been time, I could have taken the train to London, and my hosts would not have been in the least concerned.”
Yong sat back.
“I must go to see for myself,” he said. “And that brings me to a piece of my news for you.”
“You said you had two things to tell me, one good and one bad.”
“The bad news first.”
Yong sighed.
“While you were away, I applied for permission to visit my father, your brother, in the prison outside Pyongyang, and for some reason, probably thanks to your position, they let me go.”
He paused.
“And?” enquired his uncle.
“And I now wish I hadn’t.”
“Because you were horrified by what you found?”
“Exactly.”
“There are rumours.”
“I have heard the rumours, too, but chose not to believe them.”
“Tell me what you found,” commanded Shin. “At least my brother and his wife are in a prison rather than a labour camp. How are they surviving?”
Yong took a deep breath, and told his uncle every detail of his visit, including his own treatment.
Dr. Choi Shin was silent for a moment, swilling the dregs of his tea round the bottom of his cup.
“So the rumours are true,” he said quietly. “Even in the prisons.”
He sighed.
“I am saddened but not altogether surprised by what you have told me. And the people of this country can do nothing about it. The state machine is too powerful and dominates everything that people do – including you and me, even though we fare better than most. We are lucky to be members of the ‘loyal’ taedo.”
“Thanks to you,” said Yong.
“My brother was as well, once, but now is regarded as ‘hostile’, and has been deprived of everything.”
“Those in the ‘neutral’ caste have nothing either, and fear persecution.”
His uncle nodded, and drained his tea.
“I think we both need something stronger.”
Shin ordered two small glasses of Soju, the local firewater.
“I said I had good news as well,” said Yong, and raised his glass. “We can use this to celebrate.”
“We need some good news,” replied his uncle. “Tell me and cheer me up a bit.”
“I am to go to England,” said Yong with a grin.
“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed his uncle, also with a broad grin. “How has this been arranged? Tell me everything!”
“My English tutor at the University has arranged it. There are three of us going, although one I suspect has been selected simply to keep an eye on the two of us, in the same way that you had an official escort in your party.”
“He will need to be watched, and unless you can get away from him, your ability to learn how different things are in a free society will be very limited. But tell me where you are going and when and for how long.”
“We shall be going to Westminster University in London, basically to improve our English, but we shall also be able to continue our specialist studies. We go soon – I don’t yet have a date – and we shall be there probably for about four months, they think. Our English tutor, who is excellent, is returning to the University in London for a short break during her time here, and we shall be going with her, and coming back with her. She has arranged everything!”
“That really is excellent news, although of course I shall miss you. But you must be proud to have been selected and you must also be sure to make the most of your time in London. Not even I have been there!”
“Four months is a long time to be away, but we shall be able to keep in touch, even if only by letter.”
“Which will be opened and censored when they get here, no doubt, so be careful what you say.”
“Everything is thanks to you, Uncle Shin. You have been like a father to me, and I would have achieved nothing without your help and support – and trust.”
“And you, Yong, are like the son I never had.”
He paused for thought, frowning.
“I have to go to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site next week as part of my research work, so I may be away when you leave. I don’t know how long I shall have to be there, but our development work is at a stage when I am needed. I really wish I was not involved in this wretched project with the Chinese. I am sure they are using us to do their dirty work for them.”
He raised his glass.
“We must have another of these, in case I am not here to say goodbye when you leave!”
“I dare not,” replied Yong. “It is too strong for me and I have to get away to catch the bus back to Pyongyang. If I am late returning, I may lose my place on the visit to England.”
“Whatever you do, don’t do that. This could be the best thing you have ever done.”
They embraced and parted.
As he watched his nephew hurry across the suburban village square for the bus, Shin decided he had better not have another Soju either. He was already not feeling as well as he should. The effect of the rich food in England, he thought.
7.
THE EXECUTION
Kang Soo and Park Yon were taking great care settling in, especially Soo who would be based at the nuclear power station, with its extra high security. He would only be working in the canteen, sweeping the floor or whatever else they found for him to do, but all strangers were treated with suspicion anywhere in the country. If either of them acted suspiciously, or were thought to be officials from the Workers Party sent to spy on the others, they would be shunned and learn nothing of any value.
It was unusual for them to be working together and yet so far apart. They were more used, in Afghanistan for instance, to working as a pair, and sticking together for support. Here, it was different. They had the same objective, to establish contact with Dr. Choi Shin and to offer him help and support if he decided he needed it, with the secondary objective of gathering as much intelligence as they could. This was particularly important for Kang Soo, who was within the security boundary of the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Facility, although only on menial tasks in the accommodation complex. Nevertheless, he was well placed to pick up idle chatter and gossip about what was going on.
The pair was able to keep in touch with one another discreetly, through a miniaturised satellite communications system, which they could also use to keep in touch with their Headquarters in Hereford. So far as anyone knew, it was far more sophisticated than anything available in North Korea, but they still had to take special precautions to avoid the equipment being found, tiny though it was. The digitally encrypted messages were transmitted by agile variable frequency signals on a bandwidth not normally used for any form of communications network, so it was reasonably secure.
Both men knew who they were looking for – they had seen him in Oxford and at the airport when he left for home.
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Kang was the first to spot him, one lunchtime, sitting with colleagues, a week or so after they had arrived. He was able to get quite close as he cleared tables in the senior canteen – there was no doubt about who it was.
For Park it was a more difficult job to spot the target, since his job as a labourer on the farm meant that his movements were quite restricted, initially at least. After a week or so, the farmer sent him in to town to the market to deliver produce to the stall which he ran with his son. He went on his old bicycle. Nobody took any notice of him. His task completed, he set off again, but instead of heading straight back to the farm, he decided to find the apartment block where Dr. Choi lived. It was not far; walking distance in fact and he found it quite easily. Choi was no doubt at work, he thought; there was no sign of him at the flat.
The people of North Korea were expected to work long hours for six days of the week, so Sunday was a day off for most people, and a day for relaxing, seeing friends and so on. Park decided he would need to come in to town again on Sunday if he was ever to make contact with the Doctor. The farmer’s son and perhaps even the farmer himself would be at the market stall – Sunday was a good trading day. It could be his first chance to catch a glimpse of his target, so Park volunteered to help on the stall.
At the end of the day, there had been no sign of Choi Shin. Park told the farmer he would take some of the produce from the stall and try to sell it on his way back to the farm. He climbed on to his ramshackle bicycle, and made for Choi’s apartment. He called at a few flats in the block on his way, but made no sales.
Choi Shin opened the door when he knocked, but went to close it almost immediately when he saw a stranger standing there.
“I have fresh produce,” said Park Yon, almost putting his foot in the door.
He offered a small package of eggs and fruit.
“Mr. Lee Cooper said you liked fresh eggs.”
Dr.Choi looked at him suspiciously, through the half closed door. How could this total stranger know about Lee Cooper?
It must be a trap, he thought immediately.
“Very cheap,” said Park.
“How much?”
“Only 50 won, but I will take Euros if you prefer.”
Choi reached for his wallet in his hip pocket, and extracted a 50 won note.
“I will call again in case you need anything, or if I can help in any way.”
Choi took the package, and the man left.
Choi was worried and perplexed as he shut the door behind the man. How would a perfect stranger be able to help, even if he needed any? What sort of help? He watched the man as he called at the flat next door, but left without making a sale.
Could this man possibly be the contact Lee had promised, when he left England? Is that what he meant by ‘help’? Help in defecting? Or help in getting information back to England?
Surely not! He was a local man, who spoke perfect Korean. This was plainly some kind of trap being set by the authorities, he concluded. If only nephew Yong was here to ask about it. Perhaps the goods had been stolen and he should not have bought them. And yet the man had mentioned Lee Cooper. How could he possibly know that he had met and befriended Cooper while in England?
He went into the kitchen deep in thought, and idly unpacked his purchases.
The eggs were wrapped in a crumpled photograph of himself and Lee Cooper taken during his visit to Aldermaston.
***
It was a few days later.
Kang Soo was sweeping the canteen floor, and once again spotted Dr. Choi. This time, he had been eating alone. Soo made his way carefully towards the table, bending occasionally to sweep litter into his dustpan. He did so again when he reached the Doctor.
“Excuse me,” he said, as he bent to sweep beneath Choi’s feet. As he did so, Soo slipped a piece of paper into Choi’s shoe, and unhurriedly moved to the next table to clear the floor beneath that.
Choi looked at the man. He had seen him working in the canteen before, but had taken no notice. Once again, he was bewildered and not a little frightened. He bent to retrieve the piece of paper, and slipped it in to his pocket as he rose to leave the table. If anyone had noticed this extraordinary behaviour, both men would be asked for an explanation.
Choi did not have one.
When he had returned to his laboratory, he opened the piece of paper.
It was another photograph of him with Cooper at Aldermaston. On the back was a scribbled note, written in Korean Chŏsongŭl script – ‘If you need to renew contact, let me know.”
Two men had now made contact with him, using the same means of identification; the Aldermaston photo.
Ingenious.
But had they really been sent by London; by Cooper? Or was this some form of trap set for him by the authorities, to test his loyalty?
He needed time to think – to try to work things out. Who were these men? How had they found him? If they were from London, how had they got in to the country? Choi knew it was virtually impossible for visitors to get in without official sponsorship, even as tourists and they all needed official guides to escort them all the time. And how had they got work, one at the centre of the country’s nuclear power complex?
Nothing made sense, except that they had been sent to spy on him by a paranoid government. They obviously needed reassurance that his recent visits to the West had not in any way affected his loyalty to the state.
That’s what it was, he decided.
The photos must have been provided by their tour escort, Moon Pak. There was no other explanation.
They knew how tempting life was in the West for people who were in high positions but who lacked the freedom that the West had to offer.
That was it. He was being tested.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became, not least because neither man had given him their name or said how he might make contact with them if he ever did decide he needed the ‘help’ they had offered.
And yet, Cooper had told him that if he thought he might want to get information to England at some time, then he would put in place a means for him to do it. Perhaps that’s what he had done. How he could have done it escaped him, but perhaps after all they really were there to help him rather than to spy on him.
The more he thought about it the more confused he became.
Were they friend or foe?
If only Yong was here to talk it over – to help solve the mystery. Thinking about it, though, perhaps Yong would not be of much help, since he had never travelled out of the country, so knew nothing about how other people were so - well - different. But at least he would see his nephew again before he went on his visit to England. It was fortunate, in the end, the way the timing of their travels had turned out.
Meanwhile, there was no one to turn to. He and only he had to decide.
In the end, he decided to do what he had often advised others to do – trust no one.
He would not respond or react in any way to either of the two men, but watch carefully for any further attempt to communicate with him. They only had a couple of days to do so before he went to Punggye-ri for two weeks.
That would be the test. He did not believe that anyone, even Lee Cooper, could infiltrate his men into that complex.
He noticed the cleaning man in the canteen again before he headed north, but he made no further attempt to make contact – not even eye contact. The other man, selling eggs, did not appear again. He would not appear again after Choi’s return, either.
He had been arrested.
***
Dr. Choi Shin had been thinking about the life he led, and the country in which he led it. It was the first time he had ever done so. Until now, or rather until he had seen a different world during his visits to the West, he had taken everything for granted. He had accepted the endless propaganda without question, and therefore believed there was little he could do about the conditions within which he lived and worked.
Now he was beginn
ing to ask questions of himself.
Sometimes, however, he had wished that he was not the great expert that he was acknowledged to be. Otherwise, he would have been left alone to carry out his research work at the country’s first major nuclear site, 90 miles north of the capital Pyongyang.
The town of Yongbyon was pleasant enough, and not that far from the sprawling nuclear complex which took its name, and which was the home of many institutes related to nuclear energy. The site of the country’s first Magnox nuclear reactor, now old and only used to produce power and heating for the local district, there was a fuel manufacturing plant, an experimental reactor, a spent fuel storage resource, a plant designed to reprocess spent fuel and a research establishment, where Shin normally worked.
Choi Shin was happy there. He had a good life, with a nice, if small apartment, and enjoyed his fascinating work at the research complex, developing nuclear energy for peaceful uses.
Punggye-ri could not be more different.
Shin did not enjoy visiting Punggye-ri, any more than he enjoyed the work he was involved in while he was there. Strictly, that wasn’t true – he enjoyed the challenging research he was doing, but dreaded the thought of what the end result could be. That’s what he didn’t like. That, and the place itself.
The nuclear test site was in a remote and mountainous area in the north of the country. It had borders on the Sea of Japan to the east, or East Sea of Korea as his country chose to call it, as well as China to the north, and a small border with Russia.
Beautiful though the mountainous countryside was, including the seven-thousand feet high peak of Mantapsan, the place itself was ugly; and dirty; and evil; and dangerous.
Shin did not know everything that went on there, but he knew that there was a vast complex of tunnels under the mountains. He had seen at least three tunnel entrances in different parts of the extensive site, and knew that a fourth was being excavated. Three test explosions of nuclear weapons had already taken place deep beneath the mountains.
There was no town as such, although there was a railway station, and he had been told that there was extensive development work taking place to upgrade the line. It had occurred to him that the work must be related to the project in which he was involved. If it went as planned, there would be a need for extensive building work and heavy industrial machinery to be installed in the months ahead.