Per the KT, Won Jeong-hwa was formally indicted today for allegedly relayed military secrets she obtained from Army officers with whom she was having sexual relations over the past five years to the North. Won, 34, appears to have a pretty “interesting” history.
Per the article:
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.
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.
Personally, I’d like to know when the fearlessly patriotic Lt. Hwang is going to get indicted (as well as lined up against a firing squad)…
37 Comments
Agreed, this is treason and he needs to be shot.
Why would you give secrets to your girlfriend, though, even if she wasn’t a spy? What the hell do you think she’s going to do with them?
Supposedly they were watching her for TWO YEARS. Anybody else smell a rat in this mess? The pieces don’t fit and some pieces are missing.
Not much of a spy if the best she could do was latch on to a lowly 1st lieutenant, especially if her mission really was to find Hwang Jong Hyeop.
In any case, I doubt she’s the first spy caught since 2000 (wasn’t there something last year about an opposition party member having connections to North Korea? Seems more damaging than a 1st lieutenant caught in a honey trap if true).
#1,
They probably watch all the defectors, especially the ones who are shacking up and getting down with ROK soldiers.
I liked the fact that she “volunteered” to make anti-communist speeches to the troops in order to get closer to the officers… this is one sneaky lady.
This whole affair started because she was “stealing tons of zinc” back in her early 20s. Seems to me that she’s not really driven by ideology but is an opportunistic person who does whatever is necessary to survive given the circumstances.
The 27-year-old Hwang reportedly suspected that his partner was a spy, but ignored the fact and handed her classified military information. Personally, I’d like to know when the fearlessly patriotic Lt. Hwang is going to get indicted (as well as lined up against a firing squad)
Isn’t that a grounds for court martial? The article simply states he was detained.
she’s cute, huh?
“Damn baby you sure do know how to give head, here’s some top secret documents for your leisure.”
I don’t know how directly valuable all these military technical secrets will be for North Korea. I mean, they have no engineering or manufacturing infrastructure to duplicate anything all that advanced.
Well, it is a vastly different story if they sell those secrets to the Chinese…
All NK collaborators/sympathizers must be beaten then slowly barbequed for days in a public square. I fucking hate communists and socialists.
And we’re talking about getting rid of the National Security Laws???
Whatever happened to those labor party goons who got caught a few years back anyway? They shoulda been tortured and then shot too. Or better yet, sent to NK.
“she’s cute, huh?”
Nah, I hate the pixelated look. I don’t know why that turns some people on.
user81, ask the Japanese, they must know.
Kalani #2, she had an affair with several soldiers at the same time, not to mention her husband, who she divorced right after she got in SK. Maybe “watching” is not the right verb there.
Anyway, it’s a really sneaking hoe, to steal TONS of zinc across NK and sell it in China.
#8 Acropolis7, LMAO…
user-81,
Whether or not she’s cute is irrelavent… there are enough lonely ugly guys out there where even a busted hoe like Won Jeong-hwa can get military secrets for a little bit of ass.
Case in point…
http://articles.latimes.com/20...../oe-wark27
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/as.....952209.stm
Daymn… one has to wonder what the hell were the standards of those two FBI agents if a face like that got them to sing like canaries…
#13,
Well, yeah.
Remember the Korean-American lady that was rumored to have been ‘linked’ to South Korean politicians a few years back (something to do with military contracts)?
…she was better looking than that one…but, she was no Bond girl.
If you squint your eyes you can see through the pixels!!
She is quite cute. I might even handover some secrets for some lovin!
Seriously, I think the best punishment would be to send her over the border and Panmunjeom. Any fate she has in NK (good or bad) will be punishment enough after a period of freedom in the South.
At best (from SK perspective)
-Workers camp for not completing her missions and initial indiscretion with the zinc.
At worst
-Celebrated upon return and back to a life of no electricity, no real tv, food shortages, being watched everywhere she goes, self critism sessions, etc etc ..
Goodbye blonde highlights and bright lights of Seoul. She was reportedly quoted as saying to a reporter “I would give every limb of my body for the happiness of our President presiding in his House of Wax, and to my beloved Dear Leader his son! In Chosun we are the envy of the world because we have bean paste and alternative foodstuffs/people to eat freely. All the world looks up to Kim jong Il for guidance. When I return to the dear leader’s bossom I will surely reinstate my duties in the indestructible army’s wash-cum bathouses operating with vigor!”
#16,
You too can have your own North Korean spy…Just make sure that the ’secret documents’ you give her are the menu for a Mexican restaurant and owner’s manual that came with your new toaster.
I wonder how far a stack of lego assembly instructions with a “top secret” stamp on top would get you…..
I’m thinking at least a hummer if it’s the space set…..
#19,
More if it’s the Star Wars set. LOL.
So other than the quips on how she seduced national security agents and her execution…what impact would this have on the defector community?
Backlash from South Korean civil society:
1) More discrimination towards bona fide defectors.
2) A move from apathy and economic resentment to a Red-Scare hostility to the defector community.
3) More intensive security screenings of refugees waiting in third countries, meaning that they spend more time rotting in severely overcrowded immigration detention prisons.
4) Will the ROKG start setting a quota on how many defectors they let into the country?
Evidently the Brits are not fans of the pixelated look either…
Full picture here fellas. Upshot? Nothing special…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ficer.html
holy cow, she’s fugly. i think she should get a plastic surgery to look like the pixelated pic.
#13, mygodman, are you trying to make me puke with that link?
Who wants to bet that this incident will be quickly and quietly swept under the rug, so as to ‘avoid damaging the North-South relationship’? I’m gonna guess that this lady will be quietly pardoned in a year or two, just like the c-word who bombed Korean Air 858.
Of course, this lady’s just a stellar character, too:
Yep… In most places, being responsible for 100 deaths will get you at least a lifetime of cramped quarters and poor food. In SK, it gets you a pardon and a book deal. Just watch.
Given that Ms. Won is fugly, I very much doubt that she’ll be given hundreds of marriage proposals, a book deal and a presidential pardon like that other North Korean spy responsible for 100+ deaths, the far hotter Ms. Kim Hyon Hee…
http://jizni-korea.blogspot.co.....m-due.html
http://www.asianjoke.com/pictu....._woman.htm
[Insert catty Sonagi remark regarding Won or Kim's facial features here]…
#25 - How can you tell from those pictures, though? 80’s fashions and hairstyles are enough to make anyone look like Quasimodo.
I guess I have low standards — she looks okay to me!
If this all is true, what a shame.
All this once again proves political sideshows and diplomatic circuses such as…
Dokdo/Takeshima…
US Beef imports…
Ieodo/Suyan
East Sea/Sea of Japan…
are furious energy expended for no benefit when the real issue on the peninsular is the ongoing ’state of war’ between Nth and Sth.
The time has come to end this division, spying, kidnapping, murder etc.
A country not at peace with itself cannot be at peace with the world.
#26: Don’t really care about Kim Hyeon-hee, but that blog you link has some very nice banner images.
# 30,
If you have any military secrets… she’s yours!
Hell, I’m sure just a technical manual of a crummy K-1 rifle will get you sum…
#33,
Technical manuals are probably the best a 1st lieutenant can come up with, actually. Remember, this guy is at the very bottom of the chain of command amongst commissioned officers, little more than a private with better pay, really.
# 34,
Actually… I don’t really know how a grizzled 30 something Sergeant First Class can take orders from a snot nosed 20 something 2nd lieutenant without breaking out in laughter…
“Technical manuals are probably the best a 1st lieutenant can come up with, actually.”
Yep… that was my point.
Hmmm…wonder what attracted a 27 year old LT to a woman seven years his senior. I mean 1 or 2 years I can understand, but seven years?? Her looks aren’t that bad but still….. On the other hand, if she was that good in bed, it would have made up for the other factors.
Yep… that was my point
Well rank doesn’t have to do with the access to top secret material. The Korean military has several layers of clearance from Level 1 to Level 3, which are given out according to the type of work and responsibility of the person holding the clearance holder.
Don’t know what Level the LT in question had or what his job was, but even if he had Level 2, then he would had access to a lot of interesting material, such as maybe the identities that the NK defectors are using plus their whereabouts.
And also, John Walker, the man behind one of the most damaging espionage cases in the US Navy was a Warrant Officer.