SPYCRAFT 101

159. Inside North Korea: Recovering American Remains with Bill Boik


Listen Later

Today, Justin sits down with William Boik. Bill served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve for more than 30 years before retiring in 2005  at the rank of colonel. Over the course of his military career, he served in various positions in the armor branch and in military intelligence in South Korea, Germany and the U.S. From  2001 to 2018, Bill was a senior civilian at the Defense POW MIA Office, later known as the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency, first as the Director of Global Affairs and then as a Senior Plans Officer. Among his roles at the  defense POW MIA Accounting Agency were serving as the POW MIA advisor to the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and serving as the DOD representative to the Gulf war tripartite commission, which would meet in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bill retired in 2018 with 43 years of government service. He has Master's degrees in International Relations, Strategic Intelligence, and Strategic Security Studies, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University for International Relations. He is an author of two books as well. In this interview, Bill discusses two incredibly unique missions he performed in 2001 and 2002, when he led teams into North Korea to recover the remains of U.S. personnel still missing in action from the Korean War. During each of these month long recovery missions, Bill was the senior U.S. government official in Pyongyang, North Korea. Bill is not speaking as an official representative of any government agency or organization and only as an individual.

Connect with Bill:

usedmilitarybooks.com
Check out Bill's book on North Korean medals and decorations here.

https://a.co/d/8GnXuoH

Connect with Spycraft 101:
Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.
spycraft101.com
IG: @spycraft101
Shop: shop.spycraft101.com
Patreon: Spycraft 101

Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.
Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.
Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.

Support the show

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

SPYCRAFT 101By Justin Black

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

333 ratings


More shows like SPYCRAFT 101

View all
The WW2 Podcast by Angus Wallace

The WW2 Podcast

1,232 Listeners

SpyCast by SpyCast

SpyCast

1,520 Listeners

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs by Secrets & Spies

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

271 Listeners

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories by Evergreen Podcasts | The Honor Project

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

663 Listeners

Cold War Conversations by Ian Sanders

Cold War Conversations

452 Listeners

The Team House by dee takos

The Team House

1,663 Listeners

History of the Second World War by Wesley Livesay

History of the Second World War

569 Listeners

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics by SPYSCAPE

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

1,962 Listeners

Combat Story by Ryan Fugit

Combat Story

1,283 Listeners

SpyTalk by SpyTalk, Jeff Stein

SpyTalk

206 Listeners

NatSec Matters by Beacon Global Strategies LLC

NatSec Matters

255 Listeners

The Spy Who by Wondery

The Spy Who

534 Listeners

True Russian Spy Missions: Espionage | Investigation | Historical by SPYSCAPE

True Russian Spy Missions: Espionage | Investigation | Historical

48 Listeners

WW2 Stories & Real War Stories by Pod Hour

WW2 Stories & Real War Stories

82 Listeners

The Rest Is Classified by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Classified

983 Listeners