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Authorities are holding a U.S. citizen, Michael Chang (44), who they say was trained as a spy in North Korea between 1989 and 1993, became a member of the ruling Korean Workers Party, pledged allegiance to the party, and spied for the North for 10 years. The National Intelligence Service and prosecutors on Thursday also alleged that a former member of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party¡¯s central committee, Lee Jung-hun (42), and businessman Sohn Jung-mok (42) were persuaded by Chang to join him in spying for the North and until recently provided classified information to North Korean agents.
The Seoul Central District Court issued arrest warrants for the three former student activists on Thursday. The NIS is expanding its investigation and also arrested the vice DLP secretary general Choi Ki-young and another former student activist identified as Lee (42) the same day.
The agency says it amassed significant evidence that Chang was in contact with North Korean agents, visited the North at least three times since 1989 and spied for the North here. The NIS is concentrating its efforts on finding out who was contacted or persuaded by Chang to join him. Chang has reportedly admitted some of the allegation. The agency is investigating whether the suspect also produced encrypted reports, as evidence suggests Chang did. ¡°If it is confirmed that Chang produced coded reports, it follows that he received special training from the North,¡± an investigator said.
Investigators believe Choi was the link among the former student activists -- members of the so-called 386 generation -- and was also in touch with Pyongyang. Choi, a leading student activist in the 1980s, has extensive contacts among politicians and labor organizations. He was an executive of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and played a key role in establishing the DLP. He served time in jail for violating the law on demonstrations but was given W8.9 million (US$1=W950) in compensation from an official body called the Commission for Democratization Movement Activists' Honor-Restoration and Compensation in March this year. Lee Jung-hun, who took the lead in the three-day seizure of the U.S. Information Service building in Seoul in May 1985, was given W39 million by the commission in November 2001.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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