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Outlook: A fake billionaire in North Korea

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Jim Latrache-Qvortrup

26/10/2022 GMT

A fake billionaire in North Korea

BBC World Service - Outlook, A fake billionaire in North Korea

Jim Latrache-Qvortrup posed as a weapons dealer to expose a North Korean criminal network

Jim Latrache-Qvortrup posed as a weapons dealer to expose a North Korean criminal network. He was working undercover for a film called "The Mole".

Jim was an unusual secret agent. He'd grown up poor in Denmark, and had gone on to become a drug dealer to the rich and famous in Copenhagen. After years in prison, he was reformed but bored. Then, a filmmaker called Mads Brügger approached him, and asked him to take part in a high-stakes sting in North Korea. Mads needed someone to pretend to be a dodgy billionaire investor interested in a sanctions-breaking weapons deal. It was a perilous mission, failure would mean prison or death.

The film Mads and Jim made is called The Mole. 

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Harry Graham


(Photo: Jim Latrache-Qvortrup. Credit: Nicoline Latrache-Qvortrup)

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