By Kim Rahn
The authorities have caught 25 people who performed espionage activities for North Korea during the Lee Myung-bak administration, according to the prosecution and the National Intelligence Service, Sunday.
The figure is about 40 percent up from 18 detected during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.
In 2009, two North Korean intelligence agents were arrested, and 10 in 2010, five in 2011 and eight between 2012 and this January.
The arrested spies included five leaders of an underground espionage group “Wangjaesan” who collected information about politics and civic groups here and handed it over to North Korean agents in China; two agents who plotted to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, the former secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party; and an agent who attempted to kill a North Korean defector with a poisoned needle.
“Besides the North Korean intelligence agency which used to be in charge of spy operations against the South, we confirmed that more varied authorities in the North have participated in such operations,” a prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said.
Recently, a growing number of operations have been uncovered involving instances where agents disguise themselves as North Korean defectors, with 14 of the 25 being such agents.
“The North seems to actively use the defector camouflage tactics, because it is not easy for South Korean authorities to detect agents if they are mixed with other defectors,” the prosecutor said.
Once they pass the South Korean authorities’ screening, they get legal status as residents here as well as financial support from the South. With a defector status, they can also travel overseas, which facilitates their contact with North Korean agents in a third country, the prosecutor said.
“It seems that the North sends the defector-disguised spies to the South first and gives them missions later. We suspect that in that way, their missions are not discovered even if their identity is uncovered during screening,” he said.