Aussie police accidentally Periscope plans to arrest N. Korean agent
Australian police are in hot water after accidentally livestreaming an internal discussion about plans to arrest a suspected North Korean agent over his alleged involvement with weapons of mass destruction.
The incident has forced the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to conduct a security review of the blooper, the West Australian newspaper reported.
A link to a Periscope broadcast of the police discussion about the arrest of Chan Han Hoi over his alleged role in helping arm North Korea’s regime with weapons of mass destruction was posted from the AFP twitter account last Wednesday. Although the tweet was quickly deleted, the broadcast remained live until AFP’s media team was alerted by the newspaper.
At least one minute of the police discussion was reportedly livestreamed as a result. Around 40 people listened to the broadcast before it was finally halted and scrapped.
It is understood that the discussion featured some details of the timing of Choi’s arrest, a briefing about the operation, as well as the possible need to brief the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten. One staff member reportedly said the AFP was “not going in all guns blazing, it’s only half a dozen people and a forensic van.”
Choi Han Chan, 59, has lived in Australia for around three decades. He was arrested in Sydney on Saturday, and is charged with acting as an economic agent for North Korea. The man allegedly breached UN sanctions and Australian federal law attempting to sell coal from North Korea to Indonesia and Vietnam. According to the AFP, he was also brokering the sale of computer software for the guidance of ballistic missiles to other “international entities.”
