1st N. Korean Spy Arrested Under Roh

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) announced yesterday that it arrested 48-year-old Jung Kyoung Hak on July 31 on the charge of violating the National Security Law. Jung is believed to be a secret agent directly sent by North Korea. He is the first such agent to be arrested under President Roh Moo-hyun’s administration.

According to the NIS, Jung changed his nationality to Filipino and entered South Korea on July 27 in preparation for longer-term secret maneuvers. He was caught on July 31 shortly before departing the country.

Previously, he had changed his nationality to Thai in December 1995 and came to South Korea in March 1996. He is now under suspicion of escaping the South and leaving for Thailand after taking photographs of an Air Force radar base in Seonggeo Mountain in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province and a nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province.

The NIS said, “Jung took the photographs to identify targets of precision-bombings in a possible war.”

Jung is also under suspicion of re-entering the South in June 1996 to take photographs of the Eighth U.S. Army base in Yongsan from the observatory of Seoul’s Namsan Tower. He returned to Thailand and gave the films to a party secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Thailand.

gun43@donga.com