THE CASE OF RELIGIOUS PRISONER SON JONG-NAM:

C O N F I D E N T I A L STOCKHOLM 001008 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL/AWH JULIE TURNER E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/21/2017 TAGS: PREL PHUM KN KS EXIM PGOV SW SUBJECT: THE CASE OF RELIGIOUS PRISONER SON JONG-NAM: SWEDES PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REF: A. STATE 11838 ¶B. CHRISTENSEN/TURNER EMAIL AUG 21 Classified By: Polcouns Casey Christensen, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (c) Polcouns met August 15 with MFA Special Adviser for the Korean Peninsula Ambassador Paul Beijer regarding Son Jong-Nam. Beijer said that Sweden was aware of the case and had, more than a year ago, intervened bilaterally and through the EU on behalf of Son Jong-Nam. Sweden and various other EU countries (including Austria, Italy, Brussels, Germany, and the UK) had been approached in April/May 2006 by NGOs, one of which was Christian Solidarity, seeking bilateral and EU interventions on behalf Mr. Son. Sweden had reviewed the information provided, and although it found some discrepancies (chronology and events that did not tally with Sweden's experience of North Korea, including accounts that Mr. Son had worked in a rocket facility in Chong Jin after being released from prison, and that he and his family could travel readily and rapidly to the area near the Chinese border, where a sister based in Pyongyang was able to use a Chinese cell phone to contact a brother in China) in the information provided, had proceeded to demarche the DPRK on his behalf. In Sweden's first intervention, in May 2006, the Swedish MFA had called in the DPRK Ambassador in Stockholm, and other EU capitals with DPRK embassies had done the same with resident ambassadors. This produced no response. In June 2006, Beijer said, the EU had jointly demarched the DPRK in Pyongyang. The EU received an official response that Mr. Son Jong-Nam does not exist. ¶2. (c) After reviewing the information provided reftel, Beijer told us it appears to be a reiteration of the information provided the Swedes and others in 2006. Beijer said that Sweden would review this and other information available regarding Son and see if there was something else to do. We have forwarded to DRL/AWH and EUR/NB via unclass email additional information regarding the case provided by Beijer. Action request: please provide any additional information that would assist the Swedes to contradict DPRK assertion of Son's non-existence. WOOD