Few people can claim to have sipped cocktails on board North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s private yacht, but Michael Spavor is one of them.
But the Canadian businessman has now been detained in China and is accused of working together with a former diplomat to spy and steal Chinese state secrets.
His disappearance comes amid escalating tensions between China and Canada, after the latter arrested a Chinese businesswoman at the request of the United States.
Mr Spavor is the second Canadian to be detained in China. He’s been accused of working together with former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig – who had been arrested in Beijing under similar circumstances.
According to Chinese state media, Mr Spavor “had provided intelligence… and was an important intelligence contact” of Mr Kovrig.
And Mr Spavor’s close ties to North Korea, which is an ally of China, only adds to the intrigue surrounding this growing diplomatic feud.
He runs an organisation called the Paektu Cultural Exchange, which promotes tourism and investment into North Korea.
He facilitated the well-publicised and unlikely friendship between Mr Kim and the American basketball star Dennis Rodman.
A key part of his work, according to his website, has been to promote foreign investment into the country.
“We achieve this goal by connecting interested individuals and groups with our extensive network of contacts within [North Korea],” the Paektu Cultural Exchange website reads.
In practice, this means taking delegations of investors to North Korea and introducing them to potential business partners.
“There has been a definite surge of interest among my North Korean partners in doing business across the border,” Mr Spavor told the Asia Times earlier this year.
“I have been working with Chinese and Chinese-Korean investors, they are now very interested,” he added.
The website reports that Mr Spavor has received enquiries from German, Canadian, British, Italian, Taiwanese and Singaporean companies about investing in North Korea.
A fluent Korean speaker, he is based in the Chinese city of Dandong which borders North Korea.
In fact, it is so close that it is possible to swim from the city’s waterfront to the North Korean side of the Yalu River in a matter of minutes.
