SEOUL (Reuters) – A former U.N. official from Canada who now works as an expert on North Korea has been detained in Switzerland on charges of spying, likely for China, media reports said on Thursday, citing intelligence sources unidentified.
The reports were part of a joint investigation by German media outlet Der Spiegel, Swiss media company Tamedia and North Korea-focused website NK News.
The Swiss attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
The suspect regularly traveled to China to work as an environmental consultant before he was arrested in early spring on espionage charges, said NK News, an online media outlet that has employees in the U.S., Europe and South Korea.
It said it did not publish the employee’s full name because he had not been convicted and authorities had not made public accusations against him.
The person, in his 50s and residing in Geneva, had been in pre-trial detention for several months pending the conclusion of an investigation by the Swiss attorney general’s office, the NK News report said.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; additional reporting by Paul Arnold in Geneva; editing by Conor Humphries)
