Won Jeong Hwa, 34, was once held up as a model defector who toured military bases in South Korea to denounce the evils in the communist North. She was arrested in July. -- PHOTO: REUTERSSeveral South Korean army officers said to be seduced by 'model defector' into leaking state secrets
Sep 7, 2008
By Lee Tee Jong, South Korea Correspondent
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Seoul - She is attractive and intelligent, an irresistible siren to the men she courted, especially military officers. Several of them came under her spell and succumbed to her charms - only to realise later that they had sold out their country.
Now, Won Jeong Hwa, 34, will go on trial in South Korea this week for spying for her native North Korea for the past five years by sleeping with military officers.
Her alleged mission was to obtain classified information on key military installations as well as important North Korean defectors. If convicted of treason, she may face the death penalty.
It is a remarkable fall from grace for a woman once held up as a model defector who toured military bases in South Korea to denounce the evils in the communist North.
Won had allegedly slipped through security checks and gained asylum in the South seven years ago, becoming one of about 14,000 North Koreans who have resettled in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Back in the North, she was a convicted thief who feared execution after being caught stealing several tonnes of zinc, The Times of London reported, citing senior prosecutor Kim Kyeong Su.
Won fled to China but eventually returned home to become a spy in 1998. Her first assignment was to identify and send back home - to certain imprisonment or death - fellow North Koreans in China who were trying to defect to the South.
So when she was given the job of delivering anticommunist lectures at military bases after a lengthy screening process by the South Korean authorities, it was a heaven-sent opportunity for her to carry out her alleged mission. For 18 months, she gave 52 lectures to soldiers, using North Korean propaganda videos as her tool.
She made a name for herself as a North Korea expert within the military circles and was even appointed a lecturer on national security at army bases. She used her access to the military bases to befriend and seduce military officers in an attempt to extract classified information from them.
According to investigators cited by Korea Times, she maintained romantic relations with three to four officers. She lived together with army first lieutenant Hwang, 26, who has also been arrested.
Won is alleged to have passed to the North information about the location of military installations, lists of North Korean defectors and even 100 namecards of South Korean military officers.
She visited China 14 times over the past five years to report to and receive instructions from her North Korean spymasters, the prosecutors said.
Her handlers provided her with equipment worth US$60,000 (S$85,000), including poisoned needles with which to assassinate intelligence agents from South Korea, although this plan was never put into effect, said The Times.
The prosecutors also claimed that Won had married a South Korean factory worker back in China while she was on the run for theft. She and her husband divorced immediately after her 'defection' to the South.
She was finally arrested in July along with her foster father, a 63-year-old named only as Mr Kim, who was suspected of abetting her espionage. He is said to be a relative of Mr Kim Young Nam, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, Korea Times reported.
It cited the authorities as saying Won received operational funds from her foster father, who went to China in 1999 and came to Seoul as a defector in late 2006 through Cambodia.
The spy case, only the second such case in a decade, comes as ties between the two Koreas chill, following a decade of detente. Pyongyang has been angered by conservative South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's pledge to stop unconditional aid since he took office in February.
'The sunshine policy of engaging the North over the past 10 years may have compromised part of our security apparatus,' said Professor Kim Tae Woo, a senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses. 'Our government needs to improve the operations of the military and intelligence departments to enhance our guard against the threat from North Korea.'
Defence Minister Lee Sang Hee said the case was a reminder of 'Pyongyang's unwavering efforts to penetrate our society'.
An official from the Defence Security Command (DSC) told The Sunday Times that the number of espionage arrests has been relatively unchanged over the years, but different administrations may have chosen to deal with them differently.
About 4,500 North Korean spies had been caught over the past 60 years, according to the DSC.
The latest arrest, besides attracting high-profile publicity, has prompted the Unification Ministry to consider tightening the system for screening potential defectors.
Sep 7, 2008
By Lee Tee Jong, South Korea Correspondent
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Seoul - She is attractive and intelligent, an irresistible siren to the men she courted, especially military officers. Several of them came under her spell and succumbed to her charms - only to realise later that they had sold out their country.
Now, Won Jeong Hwa, 34, will go on trial in South Korea this week for spying for her native North Korea for the past five years by sleeping with military officers.
Her alleged mission was to obtain classified information on key military installations as well as important North Korean defectors. If convicted of treason, she may face the death penalty.
It is a remarkable fall from grace for a woman once held up as a model defector who toured military bases in South Korea to denounce the evils in the communist North.
Won had allegedly slipped through security checks and gained asylum in the South seven years ago, becoming one of about 14,000 North Koreans who have resettled in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Back in the North, she was a convicted thief who feared execution after being caught stealing several tonnes of zinc, The Times of London reported, citing senior prosecutor Kim Kyeong Su.
Won fled to China but eventually returned home to become a spy in 1998. Her first assignment was to identify and send back home - to certain imprisonment or death - fellow North Koreans in China who were trying to defect to the South.
So when she was given the job of delivering anticommunist lectures at military bases after a lengthy screening process by the South Korean authorities, it was a heaven-sent opportunity for her to carry out her alleged mission. For 18 months, she gave 52 lectures to soldiers, using North Korean propaganda videos as her tool.
She made a name for herself as a North Korea expert within the military circles and was even appointed a lecturer on national security at army bases. She used her access to the military bases to befriend and seduce military officers in an attempt to extract classified information from them.
According to investigators cited by Korea Times, she maintained romantic relations with three to four officers. She lived together with army first lieutenant Hwang, 26, who has also been arrested.
Won is alleged to have passed to the North information about the location of military installations, lists of North Korean defectors and even 100 namecards of South Korean military officers.
She visited China 14 times over the past five years to report to and receive instructions from her North Korean spymasters, the prosecutors said.
Her handlers provided her with equipment worth US$60,000 (S$85,000), including poisoned needles with which to assassinate intelligence agents from South Korea, although this plan was never put into effect, said The Times.
The prosecutors also claimed that Won had married a South Korean factory worker back in China while she was on the run for theft. She and her husband divorced immediately after her 'defection' to the South.
She was finally arrested in July along with her foster father, a 63-year-old named only as Mr Kim, who was suspected of abetting her espionage. He is said to be a relative of Mr Kim Young Nam, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, Korea Times reported.
It cited the authorities as saying Won received operational funds from her foster father, who went to China in 1999 and came to Seoul as a defector in late 2006 through Cambodia.
The spy case, only the second such case in a decade, comes as ties between the two Koreas chill, following a decade of detente. Pyongyang has been angered by conservative South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's pledge to stop unconditional aid since he took office in February.
'The sunshine policy of engaging the North over the past 10 years may have compromised part of our security apparatus,' said Professor Kim Tae Woo, a senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses. 'Our government needs to improve the operations of the military and intelligence departments to enhance our guard against the threat from North Korea.'
Defence Minister Lee Sang Hee said the case was a reminder of 'Pyongyang's unwavering efforts to penetrate our society'.
An official from the Defence Security Command (DSC) told The Sunday Times that the number of espionage arrests has been relatively unchanged over the years, but different administrations may have chosen to deal with them differently.
About 4,500 North Korean spies had been caught over the past 60 years, according to the DSC.
The latest arrest, besides attracting high-profile publicity, has prompted the Unification Ministry to consider tightening the system for screening potential defectors.
12 comments:
Whatever she did,just don't kill her.She's so beautiful.
12,04 pm
That is the poor attitude of this kind of Khmer like you. No wonder why this nation is on the way to disappearance from its original culture.
12:30 PM
Take it easy on 12:04 PM, my friend! 12:04 PM has a great taste. He just feels bad to see such a beautiful Asian rose going to waste, don't you think?
You are too serious with politics in Cambodia. Take a break, my friend and enjoy life the way 12:04 PM does.
Admiration should be given where beauty is located.
A Concerned Khmer
12:04PM has a good sense of humor. It is a way to reduce tension in the politics of Cambodian way which often resulted in killings for just a difference of opinion. It is great to have a good sense like 12:04PM. Good on you.
Sleeping with the enemy could be dangerous, and, of course, we understand risks involved, yet we succumb to the juicy pussy (just like those uncambodians in Cambodia). All you need to do is just get these idiots' dicks up, then they reveal everything. We call it the "power of pussy."
Regardless of your leadership background, you'll die flat right in front of the pussy.
Thanks 1:28pm and 8:39pm !
Only animal like 12:30pm that have the gut to kill such beauty.The ones who need to be punished are the high ranking military.Those motherfuckers really compromise the security of their country.And you motherfucker 12:30pm you should be shot between your eyes.
'fucking' is the only possession of those uneducated Khmers.
Hope you can use it more for every reason and everywhere. You will benefit much for you, your family as well as for you country.
I strongly believe Hanoi uses this technique with Ah Hun Sen and his government to deal with the border issues. Hanoi provides the Viet beautiful girls for the Khmer officials in hotels to seduce them to sign every thing they want. No wonder the beauty can buy Khmer heart and land. Only the stupid Khmer signs everything to the smart Hanoi. We're always 100 steps behind Hanoi and Siem. We have idiot and stupid Khmer leaders who try to hold on power without caring anything else, but their own greed.
Congratulation to Hanoi who succeed to grab Khmer land. Let's them continue to do so. That way we can live in peace with our neighbor. We still have plenty of land to give away.
i guess this is why some people turned gay because women used their sex and beauty to lure men, however, they can't lure gay men as gay men will make good friends with the women, but gay men aren't interested in sex with women.
gay men are not easily influent by women using their sex as to lure men.
Hehehehe.... how about our gay King? Remember? The King signed the suplementary treaty for the Hanoi? There must be something else, for sure not a woman!
Cheer!
Cambodia might lost war because We excluded the women from Politic.
Now, Hun Sen even ban foreign marriage while Thailand has 104 foreign embassies and consuls compare to us only 30
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