A bizarre takeover of North Korea's embassy in Spain has an LA man on the run
NEW YORK - The North Korean Embassy in Madrid was a soft target.
All it took was imitation handguns, fake business cards and some guile for a group of human rights activists to capture the embassy on the evening of Feb. 22. Over four hours, they took hostages, smashed photographs of the country's late dictators and absconded with a stash of electronics and thumb drives.
They later escaped by masquerading as diplomats, driving away from the embassy in its own cars, flying North Korean flags.
The ringleader behind this audacious caper was Adrian Hong, 35, of Los Angeles, according to court documents.
One of the most celebrated advocates for human rights in North Korea, Hong was a fixture at congressional hearings. He traveled around the world giving lectures and penned impassioned op-eds. He wrangled an invitation to a White House Christmas party, where he and his wife posed for a photo with Barack and Michelle Obama.
To Hong's supporters, the incident at the North Korean Embassy was a natural extension of a lifetime's work on behalf of oppressed North Koreans, a worthy cause taken perhaps too far. His lawyer described it as a harmless prank.
But the U.S. government isn't seeing it that way.
Acting on an extradition request by the Spanish government, a
