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¡°I was going to carry the secret that I was a secret agent in North Korea to my grave. This is because it was a promise made to the state, and I believed it was patriotism. The state has broken that promise, however, and I couldn¡¯t stand how it was trying to make us out to be criminals.¡± So said 64-year-old Pak Su-cheon, who carried out military intelligence gathering missions in North Korea along the eastern section of the front line in Gangwon Province during the late 1950s.
Having kept his mouth shut for over 40 years, he said, ¡°I risked my life for my country, and I want my honor restored.¡± While he was a high school student on May 1959, the 1st ROK Army selected him and six of his classmates as intelligence agents. For a year and half, they went back and forth over the DMZ. Based on his meticulously kept journals from the period, he recently put out a book entitled ¡°Our Fatherland is the Republic of Korea.¡± The book includes how Pak, who lost his parents in the Korean War, underwent hellish training after becoming an intelligence operative and how he braved death seven times on missions into North Korea.
Pak said it was a huge mistake for the government to publicly release the existence of South Korean operatives against the North in the name of compensation and honor restoration.
¡°Is there a country in the world that reveals the identities of its agents that cross into enemy territory? Moreover, our war isn¡¯t over yet, and isn¡¯t there only an armistice? What we revealed is that South Korea broke the armistice agreement, and wasn¡¯t that because of the manipulation of those that control the leftist forces that want to help North Korea?¡±
Park, who has spent his entire life proud that he was ¡°the Republic of Korea¡¯s greatest patriot,¡± cannot repress his resentment of how intelligence agents are now regarded as if they were a band of murderers and criminals. This is the biggest reason behind the writing of his book. He said he wanted to reveal their real story.
¡°We didn¡¯t come from criminal backgrounds, nor did we murder anyone. We risked our lives for our country, and in fact, many of us were killed. Why do they [the government] hurt us so?¡±
As Park was talking, his eyes began to tear up as he filled with emotion. He said he didn¡¯t tell even his own wife or only son about his past. All his wife knew was that he was conducting important national missions in Japan. When it became known that he served as an agent in the North, however, the stares of those around him grew cold. He said even his son, who is in the United States, has been asked if his father was a murderer.
He said that like with the Silmido Unit (about which a very famous Korean film was made), a small percentage of operatives may have come from criminal backgrounds, but he stressed that it was wrong to lump them all together as if it were a witch hunt.
His health failing, Pak delivered goods to stationary stores across the country after he couldn¡¯t find employment with any companies. Afterwards, he jumped into dealing antiques, and has been living rather comfortably since then, he said.
Pak said, ¡°The government mustn¡¯t think that by giving us a few coins that they¡¯ve restored our honor... When the nation we protected feels proud of us, only then will be have had our honor truly restored.¡±
(Jang Il-hyeon, ihjang@chosun.com )
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