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 abroad or threats from their own people. Setting up the intelligence services as military organizations is one way to ensure these officers were highly trained and sworn to defend the regime. While the secret police monitored the people and spies monitored the outside world, the military counter-intelligence safeguarded the regime’s secret activities. Their tasks would include guarding North Korea’s nuclear arms program.
As with all North Korean activities this appeared paradoxical to Sara. The North Koreans wanted to keep secret their most precious project. So they put military counter-intelligence units to guard it. But because military counter-intelligence units were guarding it, the SAD could tell this was where the regime’s special project was housed. From all the time she spent working on North Korean-related projects, the one commonality Sara noticed was that paradoxes were abundant.
As the briefing continued, Sara looked at Tom. He hid a subtle smirk and sat with a straight back. His sleeves were rolled up and his forearms looked like baseball bats. His hands looked like two sledgehammers at rest.
Anderson continued, “we also know that the underground nuclear tests the regime has been conducting have all been near this area. This confirms that they are probably doing their research in this underground facility.”
Tom jumped in “Do we know of any other entrances?”
“If there are any, we can’t see them. This is a hilly area with a forest so we cannot see whether people are entering this base from other locations.
“OK, let’s move on to the rest of 1414’s message. He then said he was compromised and made it clear he planned to take his own life. Mr. Park says his team provides each illegal with a pill they can take as a last resort—“
“How was he compromised?” Sara asked.
Mr. Park turned to her from across the table, looked down as if in deep thought for a brief moment and spoke in what sounded like native English.
“We are not sure. Maybe someone overheard him talking with some of his contacts. Maybe he inadvertently used words from the South Korean dialect that drew attention to him. It is difficult to say right now.”
“Could his source, his last contact, have been a plant from the secret police? Could 1414 have been given a false location?” Sara felt it was part of her job to protect Tom. He would go anywhere they sent him, but she had to make sure they were not sending him into any traps.
“I don’t think so” Mr. Park replied, his voice methodical “like us, they are vigilant in the North. If 1414 had met with a secret police officer or a plant, they would probably have arrested him on the spot.”
“Are we sure that the North Koreans did not see the message that 1414 sent? If they saw it, they could be fortifying that base.”
Mr. Park again began quietly and precisely laying out an explanation. “We have high confidence that they did not see the message. This is for two reasons. First, the message he sent was encrypted. Secondly, we believe 1414 destroyed his phone before his death.”
Anderson added “And if they arrested the contact 1414 met with, they might have found that he mentioned that base. But they still would not know for sure that 1414 was specifically looking for that piece of information. So they have no reason to believe that we know about that base.”
After a pause as everybody digested the information, Anderson continued the briefing. “So then the last part of the message is ‘error in how we think about Jewels’” Anderson read slowly with his arms crossed. “This part we are not sure about.”
Mr. Park started speaking again, carefully choosing every word.
“As Mr. Anderson mentioned, when we sent him in we told 1414 that his primary objective was to find this facility and his secondary objective was to try to determine how far along North Korea’s nuclear weapons program was.”
Sara knew this was an issue SAD dealt with often — how far along certain regimes were in their nuclear research. She did not know much of the science but knew that generally these countries tried to build nuclear reactors. The nuclear reactor could be used to create plutonium, which could ultimately be put into a bomb. A mechanism in the bomb exploded matter into the plutonium, causing the nuclear blast. But each step was difficult. The nuclear reactor had many components each of which was difficult to make, including the fuel, control rods, howitzers and spent fuel pool. The mechanism for the bomb itself was also difficult to design. But by knowing which pieces a country had, an analyst could estimate how much time it would take to get to a full nuclear capability. Neither the CIA nor the NIS had a good idea of what stage North Korea had reached. It had conducted several underground tests, but little intelligence could be derived from those tests. North Korea has also been saying for some time that it has become a nuclear state, but Sara knew the CIA and other intelligence agencies always regarded North Korea’s declarations with skepticism.
Mr. Park continued, “Jewels was the code word for North Korea’s nuclear program. If they were still working on developing components of the reactor he was to send the message ‘green jewels’. If the reactor was assembled and they were working on extracting plutonium from the reactor, he was to send the message ‘yellow jewels’. If they had weapons grade plutonium and were working on the mechanisms of the bomb itself, such as initiating the fission reaction, he was to message us ‘orange jewels’. If they had the capability to create a full nuclear weapon, in other words if all the pieces of the process were working and they were actually producing nuclear weapons, he was to send the message ‘red jewels’”.
Anderson picked up the thought “however, 1414 went off-script and said this—” pointing to the message on the screen “Error in how we think about jewels.” Anderson stood there, looking deep into the empty floor.
Mr. Park continued “We are working on interpreting this. Perhaps it means they are working on a hydrogen bomb. Or maybe the North has discovered a way to make a bomb without the traditional step by step path. One of my analysts thinks this could mean that they have given up on nuclear weapons and instead are focusing on developing chemical or biological weapons.”
Sara wondered why Mr. Park flew over to the US with a team of analysts to discuss this. Why did they not just call from Seoul? Why did Mr. Park and his team need to work here?
Tom answered Mr. Park’s last thought “He probably would have just said ‘no jewels’ in that case. He’s trying to say that the situation is different from what we imagined.”
“I agree,” said Anderson “Either way we are now further back than square one. We thought we had an idea of what was going on and now we have none, and we aren’t sure in what direction we should be thinking. I assume you all have seen the news coverage. The Korean peninsula again seems to be on the brink of war. We cannot continue to fly in the dark like this. We need to understand what nuclear capabilities North Korea has. The NIS also can’t risk having another one of their deep cover officers try to figure this out. We need someone to get into that base and see what’s there.