North Korean Spy Caught

A Can of Man

A Can of Man

Je suis aware
Note: Does espionage fall under military as well? Well the spy was formerly trained in Special Ops in North Korea so I guess it counts.


Anyways here's what I picked up.
It's real recent news. South Korean counter-intelligence agents managed to arrest a North Korean female spy who had been stealing South Korean military secrets.
The story of her journey is quite amazing.
She was apparently trained by North Korean Special Forces since the age of 14 or 15 but was dropped later due to injury. In the civilian world she was caught stealing which brought her into the whole spy business. She was sent to China for a number of years to run a business, perhaps to learn how to live in a slightly more free condition. She married a South Korean citizen and immigrated to South Korea.
She had been under the scope by South Korean intelligence for about ten years. One can speculate (this is my reasoning) that this was because a) they wanted a whole book full of undeniable evidence to present a totally open and shut case when the whole thing went to court and b) because the political climate before Lee Myung-bak (the current president) was so pro-North Korea that exposing her could lead to a government cover up (just like the sea engagements that occurred during this time against North Korean forces). All their work would be thrown in the garbage.
Her directive included stealing South Korean military secrets and also assasinating members of South Korea's intelligence agencies which she failed to do. In fact, her failure had led her to believe that the North Koreans might even try to kill her so she installed four different locks in her apartment door and had been taking anti-anxiety pills for a few years.
She was able to get military secrets. She managed to get the role of giving anti-North Korean speeches and lectures to officers where she used her charm to hit on and sleep with junior officers. From them she was able to get bits and pieces of classified information which she sent straight up to North Korea. Fortunately she was stupid enough to use her cell phone. Even when a certain Army Captain realized the fact that she was a spy, he COVERED IT UP for her.
What's not been released yet is what they're doing with the husband. They had been married for over ten years and apparently this spy was not one of the brightest bulbs in the drawer. You think the guy would have noticed SOMETHING. Yeah, your North Korean wife just installed four locks on the door and takes a crap load of anti-anxiety pills. You "might" want to take a look at that.
Anyways the details are just coming out.
I have been saying that North Korean spies are here and have taken advantage of the sunshine policy to get to places they couldn't have dreamed of getting to years before. And here's just one case of evidence. Because South Korea is a free society, it is hard to catch spies once they get inside. I'm glad they got this one and that finally it got some publicity.
I won't be surprised if the response is a candle light vigil with the message "Peace, no conflict between brothers," "This is all Lee Myung-bak's fault!"

Anyways, good job South Korean intel. I'm sure life was really hard the past ten years.


A more recent editorial is here:
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/
 
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A good catch.... But for everyone spy that gets caught, there's plenty more out there. I just hope they make the same stupid mistakes or that the South Korean int agencies are building good cases against them.
 
Yeah that's my point exactly.
For every one caught, there are several who are not. Probably harder to find nowadays because of the increase in not only spies from North Korea but sympathizers who are South Korean citizens but have decided to give they loyalty to the North for whatever reason.
But because of the way things were for the past ten years, I'm sure these Intel groups have had a REALLY hard time trying to find these spies.
 
Yeah I agree with Nick. Good for you guys 13th. Good catch. It's tough for you people there, having enemies right on your border. I would assume it would be wise for you guys to at the very least, be in talks with Israel to find out how they do things.
 
It's very strange but there are. Koreans are actually famous for believing in really strange bullsh*t. The Mad Cow scare for example that put thousands of people to the streets.
Now there are a variety of reasons.
One is that they believe that South Korea is a sell out to the Korean nation and is merely a puppet of the West. They feel that the North Koreans are the true independent Koreans and so their loyalty switches over.
It's strange. It doesn't happen THAT often but every now and then you get a guy who's loyalty is totally on the other side. I don't mean "hey I think this guy's a traitor," but as in the authorities actually gather enough evidence to put the guy behind bars. Don't ask for an example because the one I know falls under OPSEC.

I know it doesn't make sense with the whole arty tubes pointed our way but ask yourself if this makes sense:
A North Korean patrol boat crosses the NLL (Northern Limit Line) and opens fire on a South Korean patrol boat which has been ordered to watch but not fire upon this North Korean ship that has crossed over into South Korea. This results in the deaths and severe injuries of several South Korean sailors. A deliberate attack and murder of South Korean citizens.
Or
A South Korean tourist accidentally strays into the do-not-go area in the North Korean tourist resort. This has happened several times before and has ended peacefully. There is no need to open fire. The North Koreans haven't opened fire before. But the order down the chain of command from Kim Jong-il says to shoot any tresspassers as a "lesson" to the South Korean president for slowly abandoning the Sunshine policy. Sanctioned murder.

Compare that with:
American soldier driving an armored vehicle at night with the lights out accidentally runs over two South Korean female high school students. No matter how you look at it, it is a road accident. There was no way the driver or anyone in that vehicle could have seen those two girls (especially since the uniforms are dark in color) and there was no way the girls could not have heard the armored column approaching. Road accident... there just isn't any other explanation.

Guess which one had the most public outcry? Guess which one had none at all?
 
The latest update from that site:




Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee yesterday expressed regret over the involvement of military servicemen in alleged espionage activities by a North Korean woman. "We deeply regret that the officers in service were involved in the activities of the North Korean spy," Lee said during a meeting with key military officials for discussing measures to cope with the latest arrest of an alleged North Korean spy, Won Jeong-hwa.
The 34-year-old was arrested last month for spying for the North. She entered the South in 2001, disguised as a Chinese woman of South Korean descent, before claiming asylum as a defector.
Won gathered information mostly from servicemen, some of whom she had affairs with.
The government and military have come under fire for failing to recognize Won's identity, even though she had previously received formal spy training back in the North.
Authorities even booked her to lecture troops on her North Korean experiences.
200808280008.jpg
Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee speaks during a meeting of top military officials yesterday. [Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald]
The Defense Minister called on the ministry and armed forces to help draw up stern measures to prevent future incidents. "The latest espionage case is a reminder of the North Korean efforts to penetrate our society with an unwavering commitment to revolutionizing the South," Lee told his aides.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Tae-young and the chiefs of top military institutions including the Defense Security Command and the land, air and navy forces attended yesterday's meeting.
The minister was particularly upset over the fact that the military had failed to take action even after raising suspicions about Won's identity.
Authorities including the security command said they were aware that Won had engaged in a series of controversial actions, such as showing North Korean propaganda videos during lectures at troop bases.
The security command chose Won among the North Korean defectors here to tour military camps and give recollections of her life in the North.
With Won's arrest, authorities have pledged to step up monitoring of the defectors.
"We are currently reviewing measures to more closely screen North Korean defectors seeking entry," Kim Ho-Nyoun, the Unification Ministry spokesman said yesterday during a press briefing.
As part of such measures, the Unification Ministry is considering including three of its employees in the government screening team in charge of questioning defectors after they receive permission to enter the country.
The military, for its part, will launch a special 15-day training session for all of the military forces starting today.
Officers of the battalion commander rank and above will conduct the sessions, which will consist mainly of educating the forces of past espionage activities, centering on how service people have been a top target of spies and how to detect and respond to espionage attempts.
By Kim Ji-hyun
 
This story reminds me of how handsome East German male spies were infiltrated into West Germany and had affairs with lonely female employees of the Federal Ministry of Defence from whom they, the East German spies, extracted (often high-quality) intelligence on the West German armed forces and NATO which was sent post-haste to East Berlin, then evaluated and forwarded to Moscow: Cold-war West Germany, including West Berlin, was an utter hotbed of espionage--just ask John le Carre, it made him rich. Ideologically partitioned countries where one of the partionist states is totalitarian are especially susceptible to the infiltration of hostile espionage agents and penetration by such enemy agents or, in more extreme cases, totalitarian-sponsored guerrilla warfare: as already stated, Germany before unification was one example; Korea (as illustrated in this thread's article) is still an instance of this and has an ongoing espionage problem with North Korean infiltration; the two Chinese states of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan are yet more examples; then-British-ruled Hong Kong after the Communist Chinese victory on mainland China in 1949 was another hotbed of espionage in East Asia for decades; and of course, South Vietnam, of then-divided Vietnam during the Vietnam-war era, in the late 1950s into the 60s & 70s was an immense and intense ideological battleground and a thorough nest of spies, all sponsored by an aggressive North Vietnam (one of the world's most militarized states), and a place of continuous counterintelligence operations by South Vietnamese and American operatives. Since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, I miss reading many of the stories of real-life Cold-war espionage.
 
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