North Korea on Sunday called for an investigation into what it described as a “grave terrorist attack” on its embassy in Madrid last month, in its first official statement on the break-in, CNN informs.
The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Spanish authorities to investigate the raid on February 22, in which it claims an armed group “bound, beat and tortured” staff before taking off with computers.
The ministry said that it was watching “rumors” that the FBI and another anti-North Korea group were responsible for the raid, but did not blame Washington explicitly, Reuters reported.
However, Pyongyang stopped short of blaming Washington directly for the raid and asked Spanish authorities to conduct the investigation in a responsible manner.
“We will wait for the result in patience,” the North’s state-run KCNA news agency quoted the representative as saying.
North Korea called the “illegal intrusion” a “grave breach of state sovereignty” and called on Spanish authorities to bring those responsible to justice in “conformity with the relevant international law.”
A secretive North Korean dissident group – called Cheollima Civil Defense (CCD) – claimed responsibility for the raid but disputed allegations of an “attack” involving armed intruders.
The group also denied that any other foreign governments were involved in the operation or that it was related to President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s summit in Hanoi, which occurred days later.
“This was not an attack. We responded to an urgent situation in the Madrid embassy. We were invited into the embassy, and contrary to reports, no one was gagged or beaten. Out of respect for the host nation of Spain, no weapons were used. All occupants in the embassy were treated with dignity and necessary caution. There were no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event,” CCD said in a statement.
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