A North Korean spy disguised as a defector sent to court

A North Korean spy has been sent to trial for disguising himself as a North Korean defector and collecting information on the groups of North Korean defectors.

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors` Office said on Monday that it arrested and indicted a North Korean spy who is known only by his last name Hong. He was allegedly trying to kidnap a broker in China who helps North Koreans defect to the South and gathering information on North Korean defectors living in the South after entering the South as a North Korean defector. The spy belongs to a North Korean department that sorts out dissidents in the regime and wins over or kidnaps South Koreans or North Korean defectors.

Hong was ordered to kidnap a broker who helps North Koreans defect to South Korea at the border between North Korea and China in June last year, but in vain. Two months later, he sneaked into the South after being ordered to collect information on North Korean defectors, and North Korean defector groups, and those who help the National Intelligence Service, the South Korean intelligence agency. He was imprisoned on Feb. 11, however, after the North Korean defector investigation center under the National Intelligence Service found in January that he had disguised himself as a North Korean defector. “Hong gained 14 kilograms at the investigation center because he was satisfied with food and life there,” a prosecutor said, adding, “He said meals served in the Korean prison were better than what he ate during holidays in North Korea.”

“More North Korean spies are sneaking into South Korea, disguising themselves as North Korean defectors in order to collect information on North Korean defectors,” a source from the prosecutors’ office said. “They undergo special trainings such as how to respond to a lie detector in North Korea not to be identified at the investigation center.”