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Prosecutors are targeting additional five or six senior officials in the government and minor opposition Democratic Labor Party as part of their investigation into a North Korean spy ring, it was revealed Sunday. Prosecutors say they have evidence that three moles wrote reports to North Korea at the order of alleged spy ring leader Chang Min-ho, a 44-year-old ethnic Korean businessman from the U.S.
A prosecutor said a couple of Cheong Wa Dae and ruling-party officials are suspected of tipping off members of the spy ring dubbed Ilshimhoe. Senior officials of the Democratic Labor Party and civic organizations are also on their target list, prosecutors added. But prosecutors said it remains to be seen whether the new investigation targets were ¡°turned¡± by the spy ring and their tips passed to North Korea.
Prosecutors also say there is evidence that Chang ran two or three low-ranking moles in the political, military and economic fields. One alleged political and military mole took his instructions directly from a North Korean official at a meeting in Beijing in July 2004 at the mediation of Chang, they said. He is alleged to have given two reports on the domestic and overseas political and military landscapes to Chang in the first half of last year. Another alleged mole also gave political information to Chang on several occasions. One former student activist was a source on economics for the spy ring and met with Ilshimhoe cells several times. Among those indicted last week, Sohn Chong-mok and Lee Jung-hoon were allegedly in charge of targeting the central and Seoul chapters of the Democratic Labor Party, while Lee Jin-gang attempted to convert activists to North Korean ideologies.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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