North Korea is boxing far above its weight. How is it possible that one of the poorest countries in the world finances a nuclear weapons programme large enough to challenge the US? The answer: Thanks to Bureau 39, a legendary organisation nestled deep inside the government apparatus. Its aim: to procure foreign exchange by any means possible to provide Kim Jong-un’s regime with money. Printing dollars, smuggling arms, insurance fraud, human trafficking – nothing is too unscrupulous for North Korea’s money makers. Years of research have given the film team unique access to insiders who reveal the most spectacular cases and breath-taking tricks of how North Korea has been circumventing UN sanctions to finance its nuclear arsenal for decades.
PRODUCED BY
a&o buero
WITH SUPPORT FROM
VICE Studios
FESTIVALS
Visioni dal Mondo, UNAFF Stanford, Terra di Tutti Bologna, Millenium Brussels
BROADCASTERS
ZDFinfo, RTS, NRK, DR, VRT, YLE, NHK, ABC Four Corners, Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera International, RTV, LTV, HRT, DW, TVE, RTHK Hongkong, LCP France, RTBF, SIC Portugal, ERR, Les News 24 Belgium, Al Ghad TV Jordania, TVP
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Sebastian Weis
CO-DIRECTORS
Carl Gierstorfer, Lukas Augustin
PRODUZENTEN
Tristan Chytroschek
BERATUNG
EDITOR
Steffen Bartneck
CAMERA AND SOUND
Juan Palacios
Sam-hyun Meng
André Grabinski
Marc Buehler
Xanti Abaskal
Carl Gierstorfer
Lukas Augustin
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Nils Kacirek
Milan Meyer-Kaya
GRAPHICS
KIM & HIM
RESEARCH
Wonjung Bae
Ifang Bremer
Nidal Abdulmonem
SOUND MIX AND SOUND DESIGN
Artur Sommerfeld
COLOUR CORRECT
André Froelian
LEGAL ADVICE
Andreas Schumacher
TRANSLATIONS
Jin-Man Jun
THANKS TO
Leiden Asia Centre
Imke van Gardingen
Dr. Kim Kwang Chol
DURATION
59 mins
YEAR
2020
