Some of the protagonists in Bad Faith work for North Korea’s secretive Office 39. Also called Room 39, this shadowy organization operates a global network of drug and arms smuggling, human and wildlife trafficking, and insurance fraud. It is rumored that Office 39 generates between a quarter and half of North Korea’s entire GDP.
The goal? To keep the North Korean regime afloat and act as a personal slush fund for the Kim clan. Since its inception in the 1970s under Ki Il-Sung, the Kim family has kept its claws embedded into the office. Today, Kim Yo-Jong, Kim Jong-Il’s sister, reportedly runs Office 39. She’s even rumored to be married to Choe Song, who has his own links to Office 39 through his position in the Finance and Accounting Department of the Propaganda and Agitation Department. (Nobody names bureaucratic departments like the Communists.)
Office 39 runs a variety of legitimate and illegal businesses at home and abroad. The number of fake companies is reported to be well over one hundred, but with constantly changing names, tracking them all is impossible.
Its illegal operations include insurance fraud through North Korean-owned insurance companies submitting false claims. Defectors claim North Korea generates tens of millions of dollars per year through insurance fraud.
Office 39 also makes a tidy sum counterfeiting $100 bills and selling fake drugs like Viagra and methamphetamines. More recently, Office 39 teams target cryptocurrency markets, hacking them to access accounts to obtain digital currency.
The drugs and fraud are exported to import the real currency of North Korea: luxury goods. The Kims smuggle in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of luxury goods to buy favor with the powerful families that keep the Kims in power. Diplomatic pouches, uninspected and unopened abroad, carry cash and goods back to North Korea. Even North Korean diplomats have hard fundraising goals they must reach.
In Bad Faith, Office 39 agents operate a human smuggling operation designed to bring women into North Korea. This isn’t far from reality. Office 39’s human trafficking operations target forced labor, like kidnapping people with specialized expertise and forcing them to work on behalf of the North Korean government.
Governments pass sanctions against the people associated with Office 39, but they’ve been largely ineffective at stopping the flow of cash into North Korea.
If you want to experience the depravity of Office 39 for yourself, pick up a copy of Bad Faith today!
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