Officer 2135 walked to his small kitchen and opened a cabinet. He pulled out a bottle of soju. He put the soju in a bag, turned off his lights and left his apartment.
He walked down the usual five flights of stairs and stepped out into the quiet city. Few people were outside. There was never much to do. A couple of homeless kids were sleeping on the street. The dark, overcast evening sky hung over the quiet city like a blanket. 2135 started making his way to the small hut his contact from the port lived in. Even though his training was well ingrained, 2135 always ran through some of the things he had learned fifteen years ago. Extracting information from an unsuspecting person was challenging. Extracting it in a way that the person never knew you sought the information was the highest challenge. That is what he had trained to do. That was what he knew he needed to do tonight as he walked to the house of his port contact, Choi.
The first lesson he learned at the compound where he received his training was the most elemental fact about human nature. Everything he had learned afterwards was built upon that foundation. In fact, everything else seemed like a footnote. He felt that he could have gone into North Korea having just learned that first lesson.
After he arrived at the compound, he soon realized he was the only trainee there. He learned that every illegal was trained alone. There were no other students at that facility. There were a number of instructors, but he was the only one there to learn. The facility itself was a complex that housed the instructors and their families. He realized he was to live with his instructors. Soon after he arrived, he sat in the small classroom alone as the first of his instructors walked in and asked if he was ready for his first, and most important lesson. 2135, remembers looking around awkwardly at the empty room, and replied that he was ready to learn. The instructor introduced himself as a psychologist.
“I will now teach you the most important lesson you will learn here. It will be the basis for all of your training going forward.”
“I’m ready.”
“What do you think is the one main driver of human behavior?”
“I’m not sure I understand the question.”
“If there was one aspect of human nature that drives the majority of how one acts, how one behaves, how one responds to others, what would you think that is?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never really thought about it. I didn’t even think such a concept existed. Aren’t different people driven by different things?”
“So here is lesson one and always remember this. John Dewey, an American philosopher and psychologist made a profound statement during the last century. He said the ‘deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important’. Never forget this. We go to work, meet people, talk, debate, dine together, buy luxuries, go out with friends and engage in many other activities because we want people to pay attention to us. We want people to be interested in us, in what we are doing, in what we are thinking, and especially in what we have to say. Have you heard of Dale Carnegie?”
“I’m not sure. Sounds familiar.”
“He wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People based on this concept. When you satisfy someone’s desire to feel important, you are providing a nourishment as important as food and water. You can make someone feel important in a number of ways. First, listen to others as they talk about themselves, and importantly drive any conversation towards them. People love talking about themselves. Praising people works as well. Showing admiration is highly effective. When you satisfy this desire for importance, you create a bond with other people. You open them up to where they can potentially be recruited as assets or sources of information. When you are in North Korea, you will not parade around, trying to recruit people by announcing you are a South Korean spy in need of information. Recruitment is a subtle art. By creating special bonds with people, you can quietly start influencing them so that they will want to help you. That’s how assets are recruited. Sometimes just by making someone feel important and creating that friendship, you might be able to get your intended information by asking innocuous questions. Your asset does not need to even be recruited. He will just think he’s saying something interesting about work to a friend.”
Now as 2135 walked towards the edge of the city, almost two decades later, he thought about how he had contacted Choi and developed him as an asset using that first lesson. He initiated contact five years ago when he realized he needed someone at the port. He had walked there one day and observed. Some men were working in groups but Choi was working by himself by a building. He seemed to be taking inventory. 2135 walked up to him and offered a cigarette. As they smoked together, 2135 mentioned how hard he and his colleagues at port were working. He then asked about Choi’s family. They struck up a friendship and soon were having drinks or cigarette breaks several times per month.
As 2135 approached Choi’s house that night, he thought that tonight should be much like those other meetings. But somehow he needed to figure out the question of nuclear weapons. He knocked on the door of the small hut. Within a minute Choi was standing there, smiling.
“Choi, I brought us some soju. Let’s sit outside and share some.” 2135 started.
“Wow. Thanks.” Choi replied.
“Do you want a cigarette?”
“I would love one. What brings you over here tonight?”
“I just wanted to celebrate my birthday with my best friend.”
Choi smiled, then asked, “How are you?”
“Doing well. How about you? How is your family?”
Officer 2135 spent the next several minutes asking questions about topics that 2135 knew interested Choi, including his family. He carefully directed the conversation towards Choi, and watched as Choi opened up and became more talkative. When the moment felt right, 2135 started indirectly probing for his desired information.
“You guys seem busy at port,” 2135 mused.
“Yes, well you know we’ve had a few ships come in this week so we are dealing with a lot of crews and cargo.”
“That’s strange that there are so many ships coming into port.”
“It’s actually interesting to tell you the truth. We’ve seen new ships come in this week. Ships I have never seen before.”
“I can’t imagine that. I would have thought you would have seen everything by now.”
“Well I actually thought so too. But this week I was surprised to see a new ship with a crew I have never seen before. Nobody at the port had seen them before. We did not want to approach them and ask, because we were afraid of getting in trouble.”
“The ship’s flag must have been strange. The crew must have looked strange too,” 2135 mused again. He had been trained to make musing statements rather than ask questions directly.
“I did not see the flag. Yes, the crew looked — strange. I’ve never seen men like that here.”
“I’m sure someone as smart as you can figure out where they were from.”
“Maybe I could. Maybe I’ll ask them when I’m loading their cargo tomorrow.”