The true story of the secret mission to overthrow the North Korean regime
EXCLUSIVE PODCAST EPISODE
In this bonus audio episode, Bradley Hope recounts his first encounter with Adrian Hong, who led an underground organization to undermine the Kim Jong-un regime by helping top North Korean diplomats defect. Features an exclusive interview with Christopher Ahn, the only person to be arrested after the botched kidnapping of a top North Korean diplomat in Madrid.
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How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive?
In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it.
The Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime
Short Documentary
What began as a trip down the safe and well-worn path of organizing soon morphed into something more dangerous. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped asylum-seeking North Koreans escape across the border. Meanwhile, Hong’s secret organization, Cheollima Civil Defense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean government’s activities, and its volatile third-generation ruler, Kim Jong-un. Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for a government-in-exile.
After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong-nam, the dictator’s older brother, Hong, along with U.S. Marine veteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Kim Jong-nam’s family to safety. Then Hong took the group a step further. He initiated a series of high-stakes direct actions, culminating in an armed raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid—an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world’s most unlikely fugitives.
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo—to instead live boldly by his principles. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope—who broke numerous details of Hong’s operations in The Wall Street Journal—now reveals the full contours of this remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world’s most mysterious and unsettling nation.
Publicity Contacts
Stacey Stein (USA)
ststein@penguinrandomhouse.com
Yassine Belkacemi (UK)
yassine.belkacemi@johnmurraypress.co.uk