North Korean Crypto Hacker Repatriated in Body Cast After Attempting Defection
A North Korean crypto hacker who attempted to defect to South Korea was returned to Pyongyang in a body cast, according to the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG). The man, identified as Pae Yong-ju, was arrested in Inner Mongolia while trying to reach South Korea through Mongolia.
Chinese authorities questioned him for about six months before transferring him to North Korean officials through North Korea's consulate in Shenyang. He was then held at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing for roughly a year, where he was allegedly interrogated in an underground facility.
Pae Yong-ju was repatriated in August 2023, when air service between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed after a suspension of more than three years. A merchant who traded with North Korea described Pae's joints being bound and immobilized in plaster before he was placed in a wheelchair for the flight.