How a 'normal family man' found himself singing karaoke and drinking spirits during a North Korean arms deal

On a cold morning in 2017, Ulrich Larsen, a self-described "ordinary family man" from Denmark, found himself in a lavish conference room at a factory on the outskirts of Pyongyang, North Korea. At the time, officials from the secretive regime were singing and drinking while Larsen and his business partner were finalizing an illegal weapons deal.

"At that moment, I was afraid I wouldn't make it back to Denmark," Larsen recalled from his home in an interview with 9news.com.au. "I was sitting in a steel basement in the middle of North Korea, with no access to phones, satellites, or any other means of communication." Larsen was then in the midst of a decade-long covert operation to expose North Korea's illicit drug and weapons trades, and he was filming the entire time.

"They could have actually killed us there, and what was very strange was that in North Korea, when you are together, there is a lot of alcohol involved," Larsen recounted. As the alcohol flowed, the two faced the pressure of not revealing their true identities. "We just made up some basic backstories, so we wouldn't make any mistakes." Halfway through the banquet, a key figure in North Korea's weapons industry began singing a patriotic pop song. "Every six or seven words were about Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, or Kim Jong-un," Larsen said.

Larsen's partner in the operation, an actor known as "Mr. James" who was posing as a billionaire arms buyer, was signing documents. Contracts for missile systems worth hundreds of millions of dollars were changing hands. In turn, Larsen was asked to sing a song. The North Koreans suggested he perform Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." Larsen declined the challenge and instead, slightly drunk, sang a Danish children's song he usually sang to his kids before bedtime. "One of the officials stood behind me and put his arm across my chest and said, 'I can feel that song comes from your heart,'" Larsen said.

In 2010, Larsen began a project with director Mads Brügger to expose an unusual group of fellow Danes – a group called the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) of Denmark. Larsen described the group as a Monty Python-esque group of people dedicated to North Korean ideology. He thought it would be interesting to travel to North Korea with them, observe their reactions to the country, and make an absurd documentary. After joining the KFA, Larsen rose through the ranks and eventually befriended the head of the movement's European branch, a Spaniard named Alejandro Cao de Benós, who had close ties to the regime. Larsen and Cao de Benós developed a friendship, but all the while, Larsen was recording their conversations with hidden cameras.

Cao de Benós told Larsen that he was looking for investors willing to invest in North Korea despite the sanctions imposed on the country. Larsen and film director Brügger invented a "dream investor," a charismatic billionaire they called Mr. James, played by actor Jim Latrache-Qvortrup. At Cao de Benós' invitation, Larsen and Mr. James were invited into the heart of North Korea for weapons deals. One of North Korea's largest sources of revenue, which remains heavily sanctioned by the international community, is the international trade in arms and drugs. What began as a documentary mocking a North Korean friendship group quickly morphed into a powerful exposé of North Korea's clandestine dealings.

In the documentary "The Mole," which was eventually released in 2020, the two later traveled with a North Korean delegation to Uganda, where they began planning a deal to establish an arms factory in the African nation. Larsen secretly recorded hundreds of hours of conversations, revealing powerful evidence of how North Korea circumvents international sanctions. After obtaining the necessary evidence, Larsen and Brügger eventually revealed to their contacts that they had been playing them for nearly a decade.

After the documentary was released, Larsen became an overnight celebrity. "I went to bed on Saturday night, and Sunday morning, I was on the world's media, and it completely changed my life," he said. For the first year after the documentary's release, Larsen was accompanied by a former Danish Navy SEAL as a security precaution. Whenever he travels to South Korea, he is greeted by members of the country's intelligence service. "(It's) a bit embarrassing – I'm just me, but I also realize I might have annoyed some people," he said. Larsen also hid the true purpose of his nearly decade-long covert activities from his family. "First of all, it was a shock for my wife," he said. "She really thought I was just traveling around with filmmakers, taking care of the cameras." She did know that he had been to North Korea and Uganda. "But if she had been told the truth, she certainly wouldn't have allowed me to go."

Parents at Larsen's children's school also expressed concerns about his activities. He recalled one parent worrying that their school would become a target for North Korean missiles. Larsen now travels around the world telling his story. He also expressed concerns about North Korea's current deployments in the Ukraine conflict, which he says he predicted over a year ago. When asked what project he is working on next, Larsen said it has to remain secret. "I'm undercover at 9News," he joked, adding that he is writing a book about his time infiltrating North Korea.