Room 39 (officially Central Committee Bureau 39 of the Workers' Party of Korea, also referred to as Bureau 39, Division 39, or Office 39) is a secretive
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
n party organization that seeks ways to maintain the foreign currency
slush fund
A slush fund is a fund or account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitim ...
for the country's leaders.
The organization is estimated to bring in between $500 million and $1 billion per year or more and is involved in
illegal activities
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...
and the conversion of
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
-containing
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
into more potent opiates like
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
), and international insurance fraud.
Room 39 is the largest of three influential so-called Third Floor offices along with Office 35 tasked with intelligence and Office 38 which handles legal financial activities. Room 39 is believed to be located inside a ruling Workers' Party building in
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
, not far from one of the
North Korean leader's residences
There are more than a dozen leader's residences in North Korea, according to Kim Jong-il’s former bodyguard Lee Young-kuk. Many of the residences were identified on satellite images in the North Korea Uncovered project. Ryongsong Residence is t ...
. All three Offices were initially housed on the third floor of the building where
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...
's office used to be, hence the moniker "Third Floor".
History
Room 39 has been described as the linchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family.
According to Kim Kwang-jin, in 1972, Kim Jong-il created the central party department called "Office No. 39", which was named after the arbitrary office number where it began operations. Initially the Office was under the Finance and Accounting Department of the
Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea ( ko, 조선로동당 중앙위원회) is the highest party body between national meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of North Korea. According to WPK rules, the ...
.
In early 2010,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
's
Yonhap news agency
Yonhap News Agency is a major South Korean news agency. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea.
History
Yonhap (, , translit. ' ...
reported that Kim Dong-un, head of the department, was replaced by his deputy, Jon Il-chun.
The ''
Chosun Ilbo
''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ) is a daily newspaper in South Korea and the oldest daily newspaper in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, the ''Chosun Ilbo'' has been audited annually since the Audit Bureau of Circulations w ...
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...
, was merged into Room 39 in late 2009, but the two were split again in 2010 due to difficulties in obtaining foreign currency. Room 38 handles funds of the Kim family in legal businesses and acts as a
front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...
for Room 39.
In July 2017, Chon Il-chun, first vice department director of the party's Central Committee and a former classmate of Kim Jong-il was leader of the office.
Purpose and activities
Room 39 is also involved in the management of foreign currency earnings from foreigners' hotels in Pyongyang, gold and zinc mining, and agricultural and fisheries exports. They are believed to run networks of illegal and legal companies that often change names. The number of companies believed to be controlled by Room 39 - reportedly up to 120 in number at one point - include
Zokwang Trading
Zokwang Trading Company is a North Korean state-run import-export business based in Zhuhai, China.Taesong Bank. Many of the $500 million worth of textiles North Korea exports each year have phony "made in China" labels attached to them and the wages of the estimated 50,000 North Korean workers sent abroad to work are reported to have added between $500 million and $2 billion a year to Room 39's income.
A 2007 report published by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations said North Korea makes an estimated $500 million to $1 billion annually from illegal enterprises. Criminal operations reported to be run by Room 39 include trafficking fake US dollars, peddling bogus
Viagra
Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is unclear if it is effective for treating sexual dysfunction in women. It is taken by ...
, exporting the recreational drug N-methylamphetamine and obtaining Russian oil using dealers in Singapore. At some point, transactions and trade by Office 39 reached 25 to 50% of the total of North Korea.
In 2009, a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' report outlined a global insurance fraud scheme by the North Korean government. The state-owned Korea National Insurance Corp (KNIC) sought
reinsurance
Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own insu ...
contracts with international reinsurers and then submitted fraudulent claims; the contracts were governed by North Korean law and legal challenges were fruitless. Document forgeries are also reported.
Room 39 is also believed to be operating the overseas North Korean restaurant chain called ''
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
''.
In 2015, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
placed the
Korea National Insurance Corporation
The Korea National Insurance Corporation is an insurance company owned by the North Korean government, founded in 1947. It has about 210 branches throughout the country.
While mainly carrying on as an insurance Company, The Korean National Insuran ...
(KNIC) under sanctions and added that the KNIC had links to Office 39. The KNIC (which had offices in Hamburg, Germany and London, UK) was reported to have had assets of UK £787 million in 2014 and had been involved in scamming insurance markets and making investments in property and foreign exchange.
Thae Yong-ho
Thae Yong-ho (, ; born 25 July 1962), also known by his pseudonym Tae Ku-min (), is a North Korean-born South Korean politician and former diplomat who is serving as a member of the National Assembly for the Gangnam district of Seoul. He was Nor ...
, a North Korean diplomat who defected in 2016, said that North Korea earned each year "tens of millions of dollars" with insurance fraud.
Ri Jong Ho was chairman of the Korea Kumgang Group that formed a joint venture with a Chinese businessman to run a taxi company in Pyongyang, the president of a North Korean shipping company, and head of a Chinese branch of Daeheung, a North Korean trading company involved in seafood, coal, shipping and oil. In a 2017 newspaper article Ri described how he evaded sanctions by transferring cash from China to North Korea by ship and by train.
A 2020 review by the National Intelligence Service found that the Korea Kaesong Koryo Insam Trading Corporation was likely a front for Room 39.
In popular culture
* Room 39 appears as one of the antagonists in the popular 2005 video game '' Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction''. In the game, Room 39 is led by Dung Hwangbo (known as the "Ace of Clubs"), the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Korea.
* Room 39 and its members are the main antagonists of the fifth season of the
British-American
British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
Li-na (played by
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...
) and
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
Kwon (played by
Will Yun Lee
William Yun Lee (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama ''Witchblade'' and Jae Kim in the sci-fi series '' Bionic Woman''. He has also appeared in th ...
), two high-ranking officers of the
Korean People's Army
The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the ''Songun'' policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General Sec ...
(the army of
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
) who are responsible for leading the
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
branch of Room 39 in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
.
See also
*
North Korea's illicit activities
The alleged illicit activities of the North Korean state include manufacture and sale of illegal drugs, the manufacture and sale of counterfeit consumer goods, human trafficking, arms trafficking, wildlife trafficking, counterfeiting currency ( ...
* ''
Chong Chon Gang
''Chong Chon Gang'' (Chosŏn'gŭl: , Hanja: ) is a North Korean cargo ship, later renamed the ''Tong Hung San''.
The general cargo ship was built in 1977 in Nampo. Its owner is listed as Chongchongang Shipping of Pyongyang. Chongchongang Shipp ...