Up until this point, and despite the prospect of long jail sentences, all the Pong Su crew had stuck to the same story that no one knew anything about heroin being on board. Jong Dok-hong's unexpected correspondence with Australian investigators came a year after the Pong Su's dramatic capture at sea by Australian forces in April 2003. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The radio operator was among 26 of the Pong Su crew who were awaiting deportation after the end of a lengthy committal hearing in Melbourne which found there was not enough evidence for them to stand trial. Only the Pong Su's Master Song Man Sun and two senior engineers were committed by Magistrate Duncan Reynolds to face trial over the record heroin importation into Victoria.

From left to right: Choi Dong Song, Man Sun Song, Man Jin Ri and Ju Chon Ri in the Supreme Court, Melbourne. Illustration by Matt Davidson Credit: Police re-arrested political secretary Choi Dong Song and he became the fourth and final Pong Su crew member to be put on trial. While the rest of the crew were being held at Baxter detention centre, Australian investigators decided to have one last attempt at getting information out of the men before they were sent back to North Korea. This was when Jong Dok-hong decided to temporarily break ranks. Political secretary Choi Dong Song leaving the County Court with his legal team Credit:Joe Castro His first note to the Australians warned that most of the crew were about to go on a hunger strike at the Baxter detention centre in a bid to force Australia to expedite their deportation.

If North Korea's embassy protested about the treatment of the Pong Su men, Australia should threaten to break off diplomatic relations, Jong Dok-hong advised. Just why Jong Dok-hong chose to do this remains unclear. But it was the first and only time any of the North Koreans showed any independence of thought. Loading He also warned that the crew were considering raising their plight with Australia’s Human Rights Commission and urged the Australian Government to call their bluff. Jong Dok-hong’s most revelatory note singled out political secretary Choi — the man the Australians suspected was working with North Korea’s shadowy Division 39 agency to bring the heroin in return for financial reward for the Kim-family regime.

He told the Australians to keep pressing Choi for information and suggested six other crew members were worthy of further scrutiny, including himself. One of the others was Choi Ryong Kon, the man who spoke in English to officers aboard the Australian warship HMAS Stuart and was also on his first voyage. The rest of the crew, the radio operator advised, knew nothing and should be sent home. But Jong Dok-hong’s seeming willingness to co-operate ended just as suddenly as it began. He told the Australians that what he had told them about political secretary Choi was wrong and claimed to have been suffering from schizophrenia when he sent his notes. He was only pretending to help, he said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Jong Dok-hong’s fellow crew members were unaware of his contact with the Australians. But the North Korean man who presented himself as the owner of the Pong Su, Jon Hak-bom, did find out about the letters.

Prominent Australian human rights campaigner Pamela Curr said she was receiving worrying reports on the mental state of the North Koreans from her network within the Baxter detention centre. “I got a call from one of the guys and he said … as we pass this compound that was never occupied, we could see these men and their fingers. They were holding onto the top of the fence and they were crying out ‘help’.” she said. Jong Dok-hong found in the galley of the Pong Su. Credit:AFP Ms Curr said she was trying to arrange legal advice for the North Koreans about the prospect of seeking asylum in Australia. Her informants at Baxter reported “diplomatic cars have been coming out here with men in very good suits”. “And the next thing I knew, the guys were gone. They might’ve wanted to go home or they might’ve been fearful of what was going to happen to them, but they had no choice because they were held incommunicado and then they were pushed out of the country.”