Soon after joining the North Korean intelligence agency, Kim was given a new name, Ok Hwa and sent to live in a compound outside of Pyongyang. However, she had barely begun her studies when she was recruited for work. After graduating from high school, she initially enrolled at Kim Il Sung University, before transferring to the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, where she studied Japanese. In 1972, Kim was selected to present flowers to the senior South Korean delegate at the north–south talks in Pyongyang. She was originally trained as an actress, and starred in North Korea's first Technicolor film. Kim excelled as a student and in after-school activities. Her father was a career diplomat and as a result, the family lived in Cuba for some time. Kim was born in Kaesong on 27 January 1962 but her family settled in the country's capital, Pyongyang. In recent years, Kim has publicly expressed regret about the bombing and she has provided information about the state of affairs in North Korea as well as the possible state of abductees. According to Kim's testimony, she was taught Japanese in connection to her mission by Yaeko Taguchi, one of at least 13 Japanese abducted by North Korea. Some districts in Japan fund North Korean-run schools which falsely claimed that Kim was a South Korean agent. North Korea denies that Kim was born in the North, and regards her entire biography to be a fabrication of the South. There she was sentenced to death but later pardoned. She was arrested in Bahrain following the bombing and extradited to South Korea. The case illustrates how we should stay vigilant against North Korean spy activities in the South, including the recruiting of South Koreans.Kim Hyon-hui ( Korean: 김현희, born 27 January 1962), also known as Ok Hwa, is a North Korean former agent, responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987, which killed 115 people. Had it not been for the testimony of the North Korean defector, this incident may never have come to light. The authorities say that they are widening the investigation to see if other people may have been involved. Failed small-time South Korean businessmen in China are easy prey, they say. According to North Korean watchers, this is a classic case of how people are trapped into spying for the North: Potential candidates are enticed with a money-making deal and once they take the bait, they are ensnared into spying. More worrisome, however, is the ease with which the South Korean drug dealers were recruited and how their involvement with North Korea broadened to include spying and assassination. The case illustrates that cash-strapped North Korea will not hesitate to engage in criminal activities. The authorities have suspected for quite some time that North Korea may be involved in drug trafficking but this is the first case it has confirmed of North Korean agents’ involvement in methamphetamine production. The group was paid $4 million for their spying activities.Īfter a few failed attempts at killing Hwang, including one involving a contract killer based abroad, the assassination plan came to an end when Hwang died of natural causes in 2010. The investigators also discovered that from 2004 to 2013, the drug ring was ordered to assassinate Hwang Jang-yup, the highest-ranking North Korean defector, and other prominent anti-North Korea activists, as well as hand over national security-related materials. As to the whereabouts of the drugs, the group insists that they were seized by the Chinese security officials. Discovering that a key ingredient for manufacturing methamphetamine could not be found in the North, the group returned to Korea and purchased ephedrine hydrochloride and slipped back into North Korea in May 2000, escorted by the North Korean military.Īfter producing 70 kg of methamphetamine, the group crossed into China, escorted by the North Korean military, and were handed 35 kg of the drug as promised. In November 1998, the three South Koreans entered North Korea via the Yalu River. The three South Korean recruits made the necessary purchases in China and South Korea and shipped them to the North through the train service running between Dandong, China, and Sinuiju in North Korea, and cargo ships connecting Busan and Najin ports. The two sides agreed to split the manufactured methamphetamine 50:50. It sounds like a plot straight out of a B movie ― a South Korean drug ring is recruited to make methamphetamine in North Korea and then given spy missions, including assassinations of key North Korean defectors.Īccording to the authorities who busted the ring after testimony by a former North Korean agent who defected to the South, North Korean agents approached a South Korean drug dealer in China in 1997 with a deal in which the North would provide a place to make methamphetamine if South Koreans provided the necessary equipment, ingredients and technology.
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