Diplomacy in suburbia: North Korea’s unlikely London embassy keeps quiet on nuclear crisis Given that the van with darkened windows and several aerials was parked directly outside the London outpost of the world’s […]

Given that the van with darkened windows and several aerials was parked directly outside the London outpost of the world’s most threatening dictatorship, it had seemed a reasonable question to put to the man emerging hurriedly from its interior.

“MI6? No mate, I’m just fixing someone’s toilet,” said Cole, the owner of the boxy Ford Transit as he opened the back door to reveal an interior disappointingly devoid of sophisticated eavesdropping equipment and fellow operatives with headphones clamped to the ears. Instead, he briefly rifled for a tube of silicone sealant and was on his way to the faulty U-bend.

Drama

Such was the level of drama – geo-political or otherwise – to be found yesterday at 73 Gunnersbury Avenue, the seven-bedroom detached house in west London suburbia that serves as the unlikely location for the Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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In contrast to the broad avenues and monumental statues of Pyongyang, the British diplomatic hub of North Korea is somewhat less bombastic than the country’s civic architecture and its nuclear weapon-fixated leader Kim Jong-un.

Indeed, were it not for the thicket of security cameras, the denuded flag pole and the brass name plate announcing the “Residence and office” of the embassy of “DPR Korea”, the £1.3m house sitting cheek by jowl with London’s north circular ring road appears less a hub for cloak and dagger intrigue than the family home of a successful middle manager.

Basketball hoop

Behind the high, though hardly forbidding, garden walls could be spied a basketball hoop and an assorted collection of sports balls. The hoop may be a tribute to the Outstanding Leader’s liking for the American sport, or equally a plaything for the children of the current ambassador, Choe Il, who earlier this year promised to “turn to ashes” any US assets used against his country.

There was no answer from inside the building when the i yesterday sought an official response from Mr Il to his country’s apparent test of a nuclear weapon with a yield at least three times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

Neighbours said they had detected increased comings and goings in recent days from the house, whose residents include domestic staff and a security detail whose duties include logging any contact between embassy personnel and outsiders, including members of Britain’s sizable South Korean community. Alongside Eritrea and Cambodia, North Korea is the only country not to have its UK embassy outside the more conventional London districts of Belgravia and Kensington.

‘Quiet neighbours’

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: “It is a little odd having the North Korean embassy at the end of your street, especially with all the headlines at the moment.

“I saw the man who I think is the ambassador leaving the other day in his official car. It’s been a little busier than usual but I wouldn’t say it’s looked like a crisis. They’re quiet neighbours. Beyond the odd barbecue in the garden, you don’t really see them.”

Pyongyang is not above using London as a location for its efforts to subvert the international community and place nuclear weapons in the hands of its despotic leader. Allegations emerged earlier this year that another detached house in a leafy suburb was used as the base of an insurance company suspected of funnelling tens of millions of pounds to North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

In April, the Government shut down the operations of the Korea National Insurance Company in Blackheath, south east London, on suspicion that it was being used to fund the development of weapons of mass destruction. The claim was denied by Pyongyang.

Defection

What could not be denied was that a year ago, one of the former residents of 73 Gunnersbury Avenue defected with his family to South Korea. Thae Yong-ho, the former deputy ambassador in London who had developed a liking for Indian curry and sent his children to British state school during his posting, was the highest-ranking diplomat ever to flee the regime.

As efforts intensify to persuade Pyongyang that its nuclear ambitions are ill-judged, further intrigue will doubtless unfold behind the closed curtains of the Hermit Kingdom’s London bolt hole.

Before disappearing, Cole, the plumber, said: “You never know what goes on do you? I certainly haven’t been asked to do their plumbing.”