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“Michael Kovrig met Spavor a few times and obviously, after he went to work for the International Crisis Group, he continued to see him during his trips to China,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, ambassador to China from 2012 to 2016 and Kovrig’s boss at the embassy.

“It’s still very difficult to have good information about what’s going on in North Korea, and here’s this guy, Michael Spavor, who’s buddy-buddy with Kim Jong Un. And so Michael spoke with him, and there was very interesting information — nothing I would classify as top-secret — but just to know more about the type of person Kim Jong Un is.”

The revelation of their relationship may offer some hints as to why Beijing chose the pair as what western critics call “hostages” in the Huawei affair — and connects back to an earlier Canadian ordeal at the hands of China’s security apparatus.

The diplomat first encountered the entrepreneur after travelling to Dandong, Spavor’s base just across the Yalu River from North Korea, and visiting a coffee shop owned by two other Canadians, said Saint-Jacques.

Those unlikely restaurant proprietors — Julia and Kevin Garratt — would themselves be swept up in a traumatic and very similar national-security investigation, during which they say they were grilled about diplomats who frequented their café.

Spavor and Kovrig were seized without warning on Dec. 10, days after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, an executive at the Huawei telecommunications giant and daughter of its founder.