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Staff Reporter
Prosecutors indicted a 34-year-old North Korean female defector Wednesday on charges of spying for the communist nation.
The woman, identified as Won Jeong-hwa, allegedly relayed military secrets she obtained from Army officers with whom she was having sexual relations over the past five years to the North.
She is the first female spy to be arrested since Lee Sun-sil, a key figure in North Korea's Communist Party, was apprehended on espionage charges in 1992, and the first defector to violate the National Security Law.
Prosecutor Kim Kyeong-su said this was also the first case of spying uncovered since the two Koreas held a historic summit in 2000.
If she is convicted, the case would confirm concerns over infiltration by agents posing as refugees.
According to prosecutors, Won confessed that she was a trained North Korean spy.
Originally, the suspect fled the North after stealing tons of zinc, which is a capital crime there. Won returned to the North in 1998 after hiding in northeastern China for years and later became a spy for North Korea's National Security Agency, they said.
Her mission ― based in China ― was to kidnap defectors there for repatriation.
She later pretended to be an ethnic Korean Chinese woman and married a South Korean factory worker before coming to the South in 2001.
After her arrival, she reported herself as a North Korean defector and worked as a lecturer on anti-communism at military camps nationwide.
According to investigators, she maintained romantic relations with three to four officers and even shared an apartment with an Army First Lieutenant Hwang. The 27-year-old Hwang reportedly suspected that his partner was a spy, but ignored the fact and handed her classified military information.
Won's main mission here included establishing the whereabouts of North Korean defectors such as the former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party Hwang Jang-yop, a key architect of Pyongyang's Juche (self-reliance) theory and the highest-ranking defector in the South in 1997. However, investigators said she failed.
The joint investigation team of the prosecution, police, Military Intelligence Agency and the National Intelligence Service said Won was even ordered to poison some South Korean agents but also failed.
The prosecution also detained Hwang for collaborating with her, and a 63-year-old man named Kim, who relayed military secrets Won obtained to the North. Kim is said to be her stepfather and a relative of North Korea's titular leader Kim Young-nam.
Authorities said Won received operational funds from Kim, who went to China in 1999 and came to Seoul as a defector in late 2006 through Cambodia.
Won had visited China 14 times over the past five years.
Investigators said Won had been under deep stress after adjusting to life in the South and took tranquillizers on a regular basis out of concern that a North Korean agent might kill her.
Prosecutors indicated that their investigation could expand to other North Koreans here as they believe more spies might have entered the South as defectors.
Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee expressed ``deep regret'' over the incident involving military officers and apologized to the people. He said the ministry would investigate the case further, and pledged to take measures to prevent a recurrence.
``The ministry will take additional security measures on personnel and facility management, communications, computer systems and confidential military documents,'' Lee added.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
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