By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The North Korean female indicted for violating the National Security Law pleaded guilty to espionage charges.
Won Jeong-hwa, 34, said she renounced her faith in communism and submitted a written conversion to the Korean authorities, during her first trial at Suwon District Court, south of Seoul, Wednesday.
She was arrested at the end of August for allegedly relaying secrets to the North military. She obtained these secrets from Army officers with whom she had sexual relations over the past five years.
A nervous Won answered judge Shin Yong-seok's questions in a shaky voice, with tears running down her face.
Shin asked her if she pleaded guilty as charged, Won said, ``Yes.''
She also said yes when asked whether she had voluntarily submitted a written pledge for conversion.
Won submitted the three-page written opinion to the court and prosecutors a day before the trial. She said in it, ``My guilt began when I was born in North Korea. What is left to me now is my seven-year-old daughter. If you give me a chance to relive, I'll live in South Korea, a liberal and democratic country. I will repent my wrongdoing for the rest of my life.''
She also said, ``I underwent hard training and performed my duty as I thought it best to devote myself to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. While living in the South, however, I became skeptical about the North Korean regime and had mental conflict.''
Won kept shedding tears while prosecutors named her spying activities one by one.
She came to the South in 2001 after pretending to be an ethnic Korean-Chinese and marrying a South Korean man. She then reported herself as a North Korean defector and gave lectures on anti-communism at military camps nationwide. Her mission was to find out the whereabouts of North Korean defectors and to obtain military information, which she did by having romantic relations with Army officers.
The next trial is due on Oct. 1.