 Novelist Noh Soo-min, right, revealed that she was the ghostwriter for Kim Hyun-hee, the former North Korean agent who blew up the Korean Air (KAL) flight 858 in 1987. / Yonhap |
By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
Novelist Noh Soo-min, 59, revealed that she was the ghostwriter of the autobiography of Kim Hyun-hee, the former North Korean agent behind the Korean Air Lines (KAL) flight 858 bombing in 1987.
``I wrote the two autobiographies, 1991’s ``I Want to Be a Woman Now’’ and 1992’s ``I Cry When I Feel Love’’ after spending almost two years with Kim, at the request of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service or NIS) in 1990,’’ she told the Yonhap News Agency during a phone interview.
Her ghostwriting was first known in Japan via numerous interviews with Japanese media. Noh also wrote a memoir called ``The Bare Faces of Terrorists,’’ based on the incident, in a Japanese weekly magazine.
Noh explained that she didn’t reveal that she was a ghostwriter because she ``promised she would not reveal the request and because it was nothing to be proud of as a writer herself.’’
``But when I heard about her pain through her recently revealed letters, I thought it was my duty as a writer to say everything I knew for her sake, not mine,’’ she added.
Kim revealed two letters last year, through famed columnist Jo Gap-je’s Web site, stating that she was pressured in 2003 to say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did not order her to bomb the aircraft.
``There were suspicions about Kim really being North Korean, but from her quirks and mannerisms, I was completely convinced that she was from North Korea,’’ Noh said.
The writer added that she has not contacted Kim ever since and that she does not know her whereabouts. Noh has published numerous novels, the latest being ``Uleommagyo,’’ which was released last month.
The Nov. 29, 1987 KAL flight 858 election year bombing by North Korean agent Kim killed all 115 people on board. Kim was sentenced to death in 1989, but was released on a pardon in 1990.
Skepticism arose regarding the true identity of the agent and the tragedy, given the hasty conclusions of the previous Chun Doo-hwan administration. The NIS panel announced publicly that the Chun government used the incident to its advantage in the election, despite having no foreknowledge of it, in 2006. Kim is currently married with two children.
sanghee@koreatimes.co.kr
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