The Rebel and the Kingdom: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime

'Propulsive . . . Deeply reported and novelistic. I flew through it' Ed Caesar

'Jaw dropping even for North Korea . . . A terrific piece of up-close reportage that reads like a spy thriller but is all too real' Anna Fifield

HOW DID A COLLEGE KID BECOME A GLOBAL FUGITIVE?

In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was asoft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. Afterreading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realised he hadfound a cause to which he could devote his life.

Hong journeyed to China, outwittingChinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Koreanescapees to safety. Meanwhile, Hong's secret organization, Cheollima CivilDefense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Koreangovernment's activities, and its volatile ruler, Kim Jong-un.

Free Joseon targeted North Koreandiplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for agovernment-in-exile. After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017of Kim Jong-nam, the dictator's older brother, Hong, along with US Marineveteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Jong-nam's family to safety. Then Hongtook the group a step further. He initiated_ a series of _high-stakes directactions, culminating in _an armed_ raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid- an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world'smost unlikely global fugitives.

The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of how a trip down thesafe and well-worn path of activism soon morphed into something extremelydangerous. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope- who broke numerous details of Hong's operations in_ the Wall StreetJournal -reveals his remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubrisand heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world'smost mysterious and unsettling nation.