NK agent disguised as defector caught
Kim Young-jin
06-01-2012

A female North Korean agent has been apprehended while attempting to infiltrate the South disguised as a defector, reports said Friday, corroborating continuing concern over Pyongyang’s activities here.

According to reports, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) discovered the 46-year-old identified as Lee Kyung-ae was a secret police agent during a debriefing in May because of inconsistencies in her testimony. She arrived via Thailand, a common route for defectors.

Lee is the third female North Korean agent caught entering the South under the pretense of defection since 2008, raising the possibility that others may be entering undetected.

Citing the NIS, the report said Lee trained under the North’s State Security Department in the early 2000s and was later dispatched to China, where she counterfeited up to $1 million worth of Chinese currency for the regime.

The NIS declined to comment on the reports, saying their investigation is ongoing.

Authorities who screen defectors grew suspicious over Lee after the details she gave on her life in North Korea did not add up, the Joongang Ilbo said.

In 2010, authorities arrested a female spy who obtained classified data on Seoul’s subways system that was feared could be used in a terrorist attack. She entered the country via Laos.

In April that year, the NIS said it had arrested two agents trained to kill the late Hwang Jang-yeop, the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect from the Stalinist regime.

In 2008, Won Jeong-wha, a female spy, was handed a five-year sentence for relaying military secrets that she received from Army officers with whom she had sexual relations.

Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said Seoul relaxed its investigations into possible North Korean spies during previous liberal governments that promoted engagement with Pyongyang, and that it needed to bolster such activities again.

“This issue is not new. But because there are so many defectors living and coming to the South, it is very difficult to investigate each one thoroughly. It is time to enhance investigative capabilities,” he said.

Over 23,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the 1950-52 Korean War. Most cross the Chinese border before arriving via a third country. They are debriefed and given a crash course on life here before being allowed to enter society.

Tensions remain high between North and South, which remain technically in a state of war because the civil war of the 1950s ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.

Last year, a North Korean defector was arrested for trying to kill high-profile defector activist Park Sang-hak with a poison-tipped needle.

koreatimes.co.kr/