By Considering there has been yet another arrest of yet another spy working for North Korea, this time within the ROK Army, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the two highest profile female North Korean opearatives.
Here is the first spy Won Jeong-hwa who was convicted of spying in 2008 where she collected classified information by sleeping with ROK Army officers:
Prosecutors indicted a 34-year-old North Korean female defector Wednesday on charges of spying for the communist nation.
The woman, identified as Won Jeong-hwa, allegedly relayed military secrets she obtained from Army officers with whom she was having sexual relations over the past five years to the North.
She is the first female spy to be arrested since Lee Sun-sil, a key figure in North Korea’s Communist Party, was apprehended on espionage charges in 1992, and the first defector to violate the National Security Law.
Prosecutor Kim Kyeong-su said this was also the first case of spying uncovered since the two Koreas held a historic summit in 2000. [Korea Times]
You can view more pictures of Won Jeong-hwa here.
The second woman is the North Korean operative that blew up Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987 killing 115 people Kim Hyun-hee:
For her role in the bombing of KAL 858, Kim Hyun Hui was sentenced to death in March 1989. However, South Korean president Roh Tae-woo pardoned her, taking the view that the North Korean government was corrupt and that Kim was merely a brainwashed victim. She later wrote an autobiography entitled The Tears of My Soul and donated the proceeds to the families of the victims of Flight 858.
In an interview with longtime Washington Post correspondent Don Orberdorfer, Kim said that she’d been led to believe the bombing was necessary to aid the cause of reuniting the peninsula. However, the sight of Seoul’s prosperity made her realize she’d “committed the crime of killing compatriots.” [Wikipedia]
Kim made headlines again last year when she criticized the South Korean media for revealing her whereabouts along with telling the Japanese media that one of their abducted citizens may be alive in North Korea.
The above picture is of Kim Hyun-hee from last year at the age of 47. She definitely looks different compared to pictures of her from her younger days.
Can anyone else think of some other high profile North Korean female spies or operatives?
2:12 am on June 8th, 2010 1
Oh SNAP! I think I owe her (jeong-hwa) money!!
3:43 am on June 8th, 2010 2
If I would have met her when I was stationed in Korea I would have given her the electrical schematics of a vacuum cleaner or something telling her that it was a top secret weapon, got some pogee, then turn her in.
8:31 am on June 8th, 2010 3
The Kim Hyun-hee case definitely has something of the ridiculous about it. The woman was a terrorist – imagine if she had been an ajeosshi, would she have got her pardon? Would they have left a man in relative peace afterwards? Let's face it, in the recent picture, she hardly looks bad, does she. I think she was cut a lot of slack because she was a pretty young woman, who said the right things that people wanted to here.
"The sight of Seoul’s prosperity made her realize she’d “committed the crime of killing compatriots.”"
That sentence summed up everything the people of Korea were saying about the event at the time. But when you think about it, it's a ridiculous thing to say. Seoul's prosperity made her realise they were "compatriots"? Or made her realise she'd picked the losing side, maybe.
I'm not saying she wasn't essentially forced or tricked into doing it, and I definitely don't agree she should have been executed. I think it was a unique case, but too many blind eyes were turned to it when that pretty young woman said all the right things. Instead of being treated like someone who killed over 100 people, she almost became a sort of mini-celebrity femme fatale figure. Very odd.
8:55 am on June 8th, 2010 4
Exactly, recent scentific studies confirm again that attractive people – including young women and milfs – always get off lightly. And yes, her quote does show she simply realized she picked the losing side.
Just goes to show you can murder over a hundred innocent people including children and still get people to feel sorry for you.
10:45 am on June 8th, 2010 5
Just cuz I feel particularly helpful today, here is an age progression piece on Kim Hyun Hui.
http://www.donga.com/photo/news/200903/2009031200…
10:51 am on June 8th, 2010 6
What would it take for a guy to sleep with North Korean women to gain secrets?
11:24 am on June 8th, 2010 7
Just cuz I feel particularly helpful today, here is an age progression piece on Kim Hyun Hui.
Mom? Tom's mom?
/Yes, I'd still hit that commie ass like the fist of an angry (and nonexistent) god!
//I think she works for Julies Realty.
12:39 pm on June 8th, 2010 8
Well, we all know Leon LaPorte's wife is a professional sex worker, so I'm not sure why he would be concerned with my mom who has been buried ever since I was two.
As for this gem:
"The woman was a terrorist – imagine if she had been an ajeosshi, would she have got her pardon?"
Why don't you do some research before you make a fool out of yourself? Most of the North Korean saboteurs, assassins, commandos who got caught in South Korea were given new lives in South Korea. Ever heard of Kim Shin Jo who was sent by North Korea to kill Park Chung Hee? That's just one ajoshi.
1:55 pm on June 8th, 2010 9
You seem to know a lot about my wife. Next time you pay her you best ensure I get my cut.
Since we're getting so personal. Lets dig your old mom's bones up, I'm sure we can lubricate the eye socket or something. I'll even share with you. Are you a lefty or a righty?
But at least you have given us a little bit of insight as to why you're such a douchebag.
1:24 am on June 9th, 2010 10
Why does this site attract so many retards and nutjobs, such as LaPorte?
4:59 am on June 9th, 2010 11
tokyojesusfist,
"Why does this site attract so many retards and nutjobs, such as LaPorte?"
He isn't really that way. He just pretends to be so you won't feel so alone.
9:04 am on June 9th, 2010 12
It's not easy to keep up with Tom.
10:56 am on June 9th, 2010 13
TokyoJesusFist 10 asks, “Why does this site attract so many retards and nutjobs"? We like GI Korea because he's kind to us.
11:15 am on June 9th, 2010 14
"Why does this site attract so many retards and nutjobs, such as LaPorte?"
Wait a minute are you saying I am a nutjob, a retard or both? I thought that was Chickenhead, have I subplanted His Nuttiness?
I'll confess, I might get a wee bit mean or rude when someone calls my spouse a whore (post #8). Yep I'm sometimes nutty. But I can take it and dish it out. As far as a retard? Well, my sister is in fact severely retarded but this is not a genetic issue.
Of course you may be referring to some of my posts which may come across are irreverent, offensive, blasphemous or downright nutjobbish. Others are well thought out and sincere. Who knows?
I agree with Glans. GI is kind to us and feeds us delicious Troll Cookies for really stirring up a thread.
12:22 pm on June 9th, 2010 15
"I thought that was Chickenhead, have I subplanted His Nuttiness?"
Welcome to the club, cogtard ™.
Leon, please don't grovel to the tokyojesusfist… it makes you look rather pathetic and it encourages his seething internal anger that makes him post such unimaginative hateful blanket statements without a reasonable explanation or skewering punchline.
Why, once, I recall him hatefully telling me to die in some terrible way just because he didn't understand this thing they call "satire".
So I wrote him off… interestingly, as the very thing he accuses others of being.
Leon, instead of trying to explain yourself with all the pathetic innocence and sincerity of a boarderline partially-reduced-function semi-diminished neuro-developmentally-challenged coggie, look him straight in the eye and say…
"What a crappily serious thing to say about the humorous defense of my wife. Tokyojesusfist, you must have a hole in your head to say something like that."
Hahahahahahahah! Get it?
Then you could ask him how it feels to get nailed like that… or… if his name implies that he is a cross-dresser.
2:06 pm on June 9th, 2010 16
8:30 am on June 12th, 2010 17
@ #7, Leo, why you gotta talk bad about Ra like that?
7:20 pm on June 12th, 2010 18
“The Koreans have a pure bloodline going back 5,000 yrs.” This is a lie of course but if you say certain ppl in the South will like you. If you are pretty and you say it, even better.
11:44 pm on June 19th, 2010 19
before making any statements you should read her biography (Tears of my souls) and then tell me how you would have dealt with it. I dont think that anyone that has not lived in a comunist country would ever be able to understand what brainwahs and people manipulation means. Hope you will change your mind after reading the book and wish you that you are free to do and think what you want.
cheers
12:08 am on June 20th, 2010 20
correction: she donated the profits from the book. Still, there is something troubling about glamorizing a murderer, even one who was brainwashed.
7:03 am on June 20th, 2010 21
The brainwashing excuse applies to almost every terrorist, especially Islamists, who also kill civilians for what they believe is a righteous cause. Seamus is right. Not executing this woman is one thing. Giving her media attention, publicity, and proceeds from book sales is another. She shouldn’t enjoy celebrity status and profit from her crime, even if one accepts the brainwashing excuse.