Alejandro Cao de Benos (born 1974) was a Special Delegate of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of North Korea originally from Spain. He adopted the name Cho Son-il ("Korea is one") and became an officer in the Korean People's Army as well as a politician.
Biography[]
An official picture of Alejandro Cao de Benos
Alejandro Cao de Benos was born in 1974 in Reus, Catalonia, Spain. He was a communist and dreamed of being in the Korean People's Army ever since he was a child, and he later moved to North Korea. On 8 August 2000 he became the President of the Korean Friendship Association and in 2002 was made the Special Delegate of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, being the first non-Korean to hold a government position in North Korea. He was popular among the people and was tasked with handling non-governmental organizations and media outlets when they entered the country, and he was accused of mistreating journalists and NGOs. In 2015, he apperated in the Alvaro Longora documentary The Propaganda Game, where he gave Longora a tour of North Korea and served as his guide; whenever Longora asked a question, Cao de Benos would answer it in the regime's language, such as saying that the worst misconception about his country was that the regime forced people to obey it. He said that the people chose their regime and followed it, and he said that all of the Western views on the country were propaganda.