A general view of North Korea's embassy in Madrid, Spain, seen in this March 13, 2019 photo. AP-Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

Free Joseon, which claimed responsibility for a recent raid on the North Korea Embassy in Madrid, Spain, said it shared some related information with the FBI, in a statement Tuesday.

This indicates possible ties between the political group vowing to overthrow North Korea's Kim Jong-un regime and the U.S. agency.

In March 2017, the group, then called Cheollima Civil Defense, was in the spotlight for its first online video featuring Kim Han-sol, the son of Kim Jong-nam who had been assassinated in Malaysia.

The latest claim also supports allegations that U.S. authorities were involved in the rescue of Kim Han-sol and are currently protecting him.

There are cautious predictions that the incident may have negatively affected the ongoing denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S.

"The organization shared certain information of enormous potential value with the FBI in the United States, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality," Free Joseon said in the latest statement.

Free Joseon warns Pyongyang with 'big events' following embassy raid in Spain 2019-04-01 15:38  |  North Korea Anti-Kim Jong-un group claims raid on NK embassy in Spain 2019-03-27 17:05  |  Politics
The group, in its first online post two years ago, also claimed it helped three family members of Kim Jong-nam to be relocated to safety following an emergency request by them.

The group also publicly expressed gratitude for assistance by the governments of the Netherlands, China, the U.S. and an unnamed government.

With Free Joseon publicly announcing its cooperation with the FBI regarding the recent incident in Spain, speculation that the FBI has been helping Kim Han-sol gained more ground.

But the U.S. government has denied its involvement in the raid last month.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters Tuesday (local time) that the U.S. government had nothing to do with it.

"Regarding the specifics of what's going on, the Spanish authorities are investigating," Palladino said. "For any details on their investigation, I would have to refer you to Spanish authorities."

Earlier in the day, the Spanish National Court said a Mexican national Adrian Hong Chang led the alleged break-in and robbery of North Korea's embassy in Spain, Feb. 22 and the group of 10 assailants included U.S. national Sam Ryu and South Korean citizen Lee Woo-ran.

The group identified themselves as "members of an association or movement of human rights for the liberation of North Korea," according to court documents.

The documents also listed the assailants' crimes as threats, burglary, illegal detention, document forgery, injuries and theft committed by a criminal organization, accusing the group of illegally detaining staff at the embassy.