North Korean Embassy Attack Suspects Fled To U.S., Spanish Court Says

A Spanish court says assailants who broke into North Korea's Embassy in Madrid last month later fled to the U.S.

According to new documents unsealed on Tuesday, the perpetrators of the attack included a U.S. citizen and another resident. The leader of the plot fled via Lisbon to Newark, N.J., and offered stolen material to the FBI in New York.

"We have no comment," Martin Feely, a spokesman for the FBI's New York field office, told NPR in an email.

Spain's Embassy in Washington, D.C., also declined to comment. "There is a judicial procedure underway," an embassy spokesperson wrote.

The break-in came on Feb. 22, just days before the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam. That summit ended in a stalemate after the U.S. and North Korea could not agree on a deal.

The Spanish judge in the newly unsealed case, Judge José de la Mata, says 10 individuals — whom he refers to as a "criminal organization" — were involved in crimes including falsified documents, illegal detention and injuries. The court statement identifies the suspected leader of the group as A. Hong Chang, a Mexican citizen and U.S. resident. (Some reports have named that person as Adrian Hong Chang.) The documents also say a U.S. and South Korean citizen are suspected in the break-in.