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Four South Korean intelligence agents who had been gathering information on North Korea in Moscow have mysteriously been expelled by Russia, it emerged Sunday. South Korean and Russian government officials said some South Korean intelligence agents who had worked with diplomatic passports returned home between late last year and late June this year.
Two of them returned home suddenly just about a year after they took up their posts without fulfilling their three-year term. It was confirmed that all the expelled intelligence agents had worked in Moscow disguised as diplomats without identifying themselves to Russian authorities.
However, they were not declared persona non grata by Russian authorities, and contrary to the principle of reciprocity, the South Korean government has taken no similar action against Russian intelligence agents working in South Korea. Diplomatic sources say the expulsion was caused not by their personal mistake but by a bilateral disagreement on intelligence sharing or a mistake by South Korean authorities.
Diplomatic friction between the two countries last ignited 10 years ago, in July 1998, when Russia expelled Cho Sung-woo, then counselor at South Korea's embassy in Moscow, for attempting to steal confidential information from the Russian government, and South Korea expelled Oleg Abramkin, then counselor and consul at the Russian Embassy in Seoul.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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