At the end of August 1961, Hwang tae-sung and three guides crossed the DMZ using heavy rain for cover and proceeded to Wooi-dong through Uijongbu, where the three guides left Hwang who changed into civilian clothes. He had been a close friend of Park Sang-hee, Park Chung-hee's elder brother and had been a leader of the socialism campaign in Kimchon at the end of the twenties. According to Cho Young-ju, former head of the Korean Association in Japan, Park Sang-hee was a hot-tempered nationalist with a strong sense of justice, while Hwang was a cool, cosmopolitan orthodox socialist. When he was in primary school, Park Chung-hee must have met Hwang a close friend of his brother. Hwang and Park Sang-hee kept up anti Japanese activities together in Kimchon. Hwang introduced Cho Kwi-bun, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, to Park who married her.

Captain Yang Hun, an army prosecutor, interviewed Hwang in jail and later testified that Hwang had moved to Seoul after Park's marriage and attended high school with another communist leader Park Hun-young. Hwang took part in the June 10 anti Japanese demonstrations. He was expelled from high school for organizing a revolt against the Japanese headmaster and later from Yonhee College for the same reason. In 1925 Hwang helped to organize the Communist Party and alongside Cho Bong-am was arrested on two occasions. After release from jail he left the party and worked as a clerk for the Ox Cart Association in Kimchon.

On October 1, 1946 Hwang organized riots in Taegu against the rice ration system and demanded the release of Park Hun-young. Park Sang-hee was engaged in leftist activities in his hometown, but when the majority accepted trusteeship he broke away from them. Shortly after the Taegu riot, he organized one in Kumi and on October 3, occupied the police station and local administration office to establish a leftist government. At the time Park Chung-hee was attending a military college in Seoul after an ideological break up with his brother. Park Sang-hee was killed in the early morning of October 5, shot by police. During the Tagu riot, Hwang's elder son Hwang Kyong-ok was killed leaving behind a daughter Hwang Yoo-kyong.

According to captain Yang, now a lawyer,

'After the failure of the Taegu riot, Hwang came to Seoul and went into hiding. Lee Seung-yop, a permanent member of the Democratic Nationalist Front criticized him and advised him to go to North Korea. Hwang was opposed to this as he did not want to leave his hometown, but Lee insisted that it was a party order. He went to the North with his sister, whose husband was in prison; a niece named Lim, attending Taegu high school and his second son, attending medical college in Taegu.'

Hwang's sister married a man named Lim from Kimchon, an intellectual who joined the leftist anti Japanese campaign, but was arrested after liberation. He was later released and joined an organization of former leftists who had renounced communism, but was killed during the Korean War. Yun continued,

'Hwang Tae-sung went to Haeju, Hwanghae province and worked as an administration chief of the 'Hwanghae Ilbo'. His second son and his niece Lim attended Kim Il-sung University.'

Hwang wrote a letter to Huh Jung-sook, daughter of Huh Hun, chairman of the North Korea Supreme Peoples' Council, and with her help moved to Pyongyang as director of the industrial department which later became the Ministry of Trade. Hwang and his niece came to the South again during the Korean War while Lim was part of a propaganda unit formed from South Korean students attending the university. She was left behind and jailed. On her release she married a man named Kwon and is still alive today.

Hwang returned to the North under orders from Lee Seung-yop. Even though he was a former member of the South Korean Workers' Party, Hwang criticized and disliked Park Hun-young, its leader and Lee Seung-yop. In August 1953, Kim Il-sung executed Park and Lee in a purge of the party, but Hwang survived. He was promoted to Deputy Trade Minister. After contracting a lung disease, Hwang was treated at a hospital in Beijing and was retired when he heard of the coup. After confirming that Park Chung-hee was in charge he visited Lee Hyo-seung, liaison chief for South Korea and said,

"Park Chung-hee is someone I am very close to. He respected me. I'll go to the South and meet him. Whenever he had leave during his time in Manchuria he visited me."

Hwang was trained in infiltration and briefed for several months before leaving for South Korea.

At Wooi-dong, he took a taxi in the heavy rain and got out at a newspaper office in Myon-dong. He wanted to meet the president of the paper, named Kim and find out about South Korean attitudes. Kim, however, was not there so Hwang went to Joongang University in Hookseok-dong to look for the son of Kim Won-chul, a friend from his hometown.

(The photograph is of Hwang Tae-song)

(Cho Gab-je, mongol@chosun.com ; Lee Dong-wook, done@chosun.com )