Episode
Shadow State: The Secret History of North Korea’s Room 39
- Podcast
- Spy Craft
- Published
- May 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 315
- Processing state
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Summary
Deep within the closed borders of Pyongyang sits Room 39, a highly secretive government branch dedicated to generating hard foreign currency for the North Korean regime. This gripping investigative episode unpacks the shadowy world of state-sponsored operations, tracking how billions of dollars flow through global networks via illicit trade, counterfeit currencies, and state-sanctioned smuggling. Discover the high-stakes intelligence operations that have spent decades trying to expose and dismantle the world’s most elusive financial network.