By now Anderson had become curious about this as well. “So what do you think this ‘39’ means Mr. Park?”
Tom heard Mr. Park take a deep breath and then begin. “What it says on the folder is ‘Room 39’. This looks like a facility belonging to Room 39. I can’t believe it.”
Anderson asked the obvious, “What is Room 39?”
“Room 39 is a secret organization in North Korea. It is a group that attempts to make money for the regime. It operates various front companies in the world that do or sell illegal things to make money and then launder it for the regime. Companies run by Room 39 have been found engaging in insurance fraud around the world, weapons sales to terrorist groups or dictators, counterfeiting currency including the dollar, trafficking women and slaves around the world, and a variety of other things. They even run a chain of restaurants throughout Asia. They do all of these activities and make a lot of money — they have made billions of dollars over the years. We’ve known about it, but we have never been inside one of their facilities.”
“Why is it called ‘Room 39,’” Anderson asked. By now Tom had opened a small utility bag he brought and began stuffing it with the documents on the desk.
“It is called Room 39 because its headquarters are located on the third floor of the Workers’ Party building in Pyongyang. They might have called it that because the set of offices they occupied were numbered 39. This is effectively the personal investment office for the regime. They make money, allowing the regime to take that cash and buy the various luxuries it needs. You always hear stories about how the regime is one of the largest buyers of Hennessy cognac or that they buy yachts or expensive watches. This is how they afford these things. They also use the money to buy luxuries to award high-ranking officials. The regime basically buys their loyalty.”
Tom had finished grabbing most of the papers on the desk and started walking further back into the warehouse. He finally joined in the conversation.
“So this is Room 39’s drug wing? They make heroin and meth and do what? Export it out?”
“Yes,” Mr. Park continued, “We have been receiving reports that North Korean embassies around the world were told that they were to become responsible for selling drugs like heroin in their respective countries. The North Koreans also work with other groups to get the drugs sent around the world. Have you heard of the Pong Su incident?”
Everyone in the conference room replied, “no,” Mr. Park went on, “In 2006, a ship called the Pong Su, flying the Tuvalu flag, was spotted off the coast of Australia. Police followed several men who landed ashore. They eventually found them in a hotel with 50kg of heroin. Then when the Australian SAS raided the Pong Su, they found another 150kg of heroin aboard. The smugglers who came ashore were not North Korean. They were Southeast Asian. But the leaders on the ship were North Korean. One was a Workers’ Party official. That would be like finding a member of your President’s administration on a ship carrying heroin. It was an unbelievable catch made by the Australians. The Pong Su was also outfitted with enough fuel and supplies to travel around the world nonstop.”
“So it would have moved on and dropped heroin off at other countries around the world after it left Australia?” Sara asked.
“Exactly. One wonders how many North Korean drug ships have made global trips like this already,” Mr. Park said.
Tom jumped in, “Mr. Park, when your analysts briefed me, they said that one of your deep cover officers had spotted some strange European-Middle Easterners at the port near here. Your officer also spotted men in radioactive suits. I’m guessing that the explanation now is that those men he spotted were international drug smugglers and those radioactive suits were really the protective suits sitting next to the meth lab.”
“That would make sense now,” Mr. Park replied. “This is the facility where Room 39 makes all of their drugs. They then ship it out of the port nearby in Chongjin. They probably sometimes send it out on ships managed by officials from Room 39, as in the case of Pong Su. Because they have so much of these drugs, they probably also send some off with smuggling groups.”
“How many people work for Room 39” Sara asked.
“In terms of the officials managing it and running the various companies and operations, it’s hundreds of people. But if you include all of the workers that you would see in a drug factory like this, it would be in the thousands,” Mr. Park replied.
By now Tom had found a door on the outer wall of the warehouse. It looked large and heavy unlike the office doors he had seen earlier. Tom tried to press on the handle but it was locked. He kicked it several times but it did not open. He aimed at the lock with his M4 and shot it three times. Now he grabbed the handle and was able to open the door. Tom quickly put on his night vision goggles and turned off his flashlight. He wanted to first make sure the room did not have anyone in it. He entered it quickly with his rifle pointed. He soon saw that there was nobody inside, but he saw something strange instead. He flipped up his night vision goggles and turned on his helmet light. What he illuminated would shock anyone who saw it.
“Wow,” someone in the Command Room said.
In front of Tom was a large table. On it was more cash than Tom had ever seen in his life. US dollars were piled at least three feet high and covered the entire table. Tom walked up closer. He saw that most of the bills were hundred dollar bills. He looked around the rest of the room. There were more bills piled up along the sides of the room.
“Tom, take a few of those. We can give it to the Secret Service for analysis,” Anderson said. Tom took a stack of bills from the table and put it in his utility bag. Tom remembered that the US Secret Service was responsible for tracking financial crimes, in addition to protecting the President. Tom wondered if the bills he was packing were counterfeit or real. As Tom was packing the bills, he spotted a desk on the other side of the room. He walked to it and grabbed one of the papers on it. He could not read it, but the tables and numbers on it indicated what it was.
“This looks like a bank statement,” Tom said.
After a pause while Tom held the page closer to his helmet camera, Mr. Park said, “I can’t read it. It’s written in Chinese.”
“Tom, pack those papers too,” Anderson said. Tom put all the papers in his bag. He walked out of the room back into the main warehouse. He continued walking farther back into the facility.
“Mr. Park, the one lingering question is why did Officer 1414 give this location in his message? He also said we were mistaken in the way we thought about North Korea’s nuclear weapons. He clearly thought there was some connection between nuclear weapons and this facility. What could he have meant?” Anderson finally asked what had been on Tom’s mind for some time.
After a pause, Mr. Park said, “This is what I have been thinking about since we read that first ‘heroin’ sign. I am not sure what Officer 1414 was thinking. I really don’t know why he sent us here.”
“Tom, are there any other side doors like the one to that money room?” Sara asked. Tom smiled as he heard her mind firing away. Tom spotted another door further back.
“Roger. Going to it.” He walked past several of the long assembly line tables until he reached another door on the outer wall. He tried the handle for this door. It actually turned. Tom readied his M4 with his right hand and pushed open the door. He moved in cautiously but saw nobody inside the room. He was in a larger room. It was almost thirty feet on each side, he estimated. This room was packed with cardboard boxes in various shapes and sizes. As he shined his light on them, he could read labels on the boxes. He was looking at boxes of TVs, computers, cell phones, video game consoles, vodka, whiskey, wine, cognac, DVDs, candy, potato chips, and various other items. The room was packed full.