A South Korean man who spied for North Korea for more than 17 years has been arrested on charges of violating South Korea’s National Security Law.
The 37-year old man, known only as Lee, was able to gather large amounts of sensitive military information in his role as an advisor to the National Unification Advisory Council and the Education Center for Unification, according to prosecutors in Suwon.
Lee was recruited by North Korean agent Ri Jin Woo at a university in India during the early 1990s, and received $50,600 for his activities from the No. 35 Department of the Worker’s Party. He subsequently made two trips to Pyongyang, in 1993 and 1995, during one of which he became a member of the Workers’ Party.
Lee apparently conveyed information to the North on portable storage media through frequent trips to South East Asian destinations including Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore. It was in Singapore that Lee allegedly received an honorary award for his activities in 2003.
The main duties of the No. 35 Department under the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party are espionage activities and terrorist operations in South Korea and abroad. Some well-known spies who belonged to the Department include Muhammad Kansu, a former Dankook University professor who was arrested in 1996, and Kim Hyun Hee, who was involved in the bombing of Korean Air flight 858 in 1987.
