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A wedding photo of Won Jeong-hwa, charged with spying for North Korea, released by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office on Wednesday.
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A North Korean woman is being held for allegedly posing as a defector to the South in order to spy for Pyongyang, the first such case on record. Authorities say the woman traded sexual favors for military secrets from South Korean officers and passed the information to the North. Investigators say she was also instructed by North Korea to assassinate South Korean intelligence agents and to discover the whereabouts of high-profile defectors including Hwang Jang-yup, a former secretary of the North Korean Worker's Party who fled to the South in 1997.
An investigation team of officials from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, Gyeonggi provincial police, Defense Security Command, and the Gyeonggi chapter of the National Intelligence Service, on Wednesday said it arrested Won Jeong-hwa (34) and an Army captain identified as Hwang (27) who allegedly passed sensitive information including a list of North Korean defectors to her, as well as a senior North Korean identified as Kim (63) who gave instructions to Won and passed the stolen information to the North.
According to investigators, Won, who was an agent dispatched by North Korea's Ministry of Public Security and the State Security Department, went to China in 1998. Engaging in trade in China's northeastern Jilin Province, she was involved in kidnapping more than 100 North Korean refugees and South Korean businessmen and sending them to the North.
In October 2001, she received instructions from the Ministry of Public Security to infiltrate South Korea. She posed as an ethnic Korean in China who wanted to marry a South Korean national. Immediately after arriving in the South through marriage, she surrendered to South Korean authorities saying she was actually a North Korean refugee intending to settle down in the South.
Won allegedly attempted to discover the whereabouts of the high profile figures by making contacts with military officers or senior members of North Korean defectors' associations. She discovered personal information and activities of South Korean intelligence agents identified as Lee and Kim, which she reported to the North. Won allegedly received a poisoned needle to kill them.
She is also charged with making remarks supporting North Korea and playing CDs praising the North in some 50 lectures to military officers about security issues.
Won in the process met the officer, and they began living together. Hwang gave her a list of North Korean defectors who were working as lecturers on security issues for the military. He was allegedly aware that Won was a spy but protected her and helped her destroy original materials she had already copied to the North.
Kim was Won's foster father and was arrested alongside her. His nephew is reportedly married to a daughter of Kim Yong-nam, North Korea¡¯s no. 2 leader.
The arrest was to be made public on Thursday, but the Munhwa Ilbo, an evening newspaper, broke the news embargo on Wednesday afternoon, prompting a hasty announcement by authorities.
On July 17, right after Won was arrested, and on Aug. 1, Gyeonggi police asked the press to hold the news until further investigation was conducted and prosecutors indicted Won.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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