An advance-fee scam has targeted researchers in the North Korea watcher community with an elaborate story focusing on a missing DPRK official, an email campaign seen by NK News shows.

The apparent 419-scam, which was sent to multiple people via BCC on Monday, attempts to elicit help for a purported relative of the official to invest “Eighteen Million United States of America Dollars.”

“I am Mr. Chong Hwang Kim from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…a cousin to Late Mr. Choe Yong-gon who was one of the vice-premiers of North Korea and Deputy Minister of construction and building material