ID :
18803
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 15:24
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/18803
The shortlink copeid
N. Korean spy suspect admits guilt
SUWON, South Korea, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- A suspected female North Korean agent who allegedly came to the South disguised as a defector pleaded guilty Wednesday to spying for Pyongyang.
Won Jeong-hwa, 35, admitted in court before Suwon District Court Judge Shin Yong-suk to having collected information on South Korea's key military installations and passing it on to North Korean agents in China.
She is also accused of gathering information on other North Koreans who defected
to the South and reporting them to North Korean officials.
Won was teary throughout the court session in which media and public access was
heavily restricted.
On Tuesday, she submitted a written statement admitting to the charges against
her and repenting of her past activities as a spy, according to the court.
"I now only have a seven-year old daughter. If you would give me another
chance to live, I will live a life of repentance in South Korea," she wrote,
according to prosecution officials who described the statement to Yonhap News
Agency.
"I had believed all my life that to live for the (North Korean) leader (Kim
Il-sung) and general (Kim Jong-il) was everything and had fully performed my
duty. However, while living in the South, I started to have doubts about the
North Korean regime, and my mind was in emotional conflict," she wrote.
"It is my sin to have been born in the North," she said.
Won was arrested on Aug. 27, three years after the military intelligence began
monitoring her, following a report by one of the military officers she approached
him to extract information. Investigators said she exchanged sexual favors for
the information.
Her key missions included locating and possibly assassinating Hwang Jang-yop, a
former secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party and the highest-ranking North
Korean to defect to the South.
North Korea earlier this month claimed that South Korea fabricated Won's case to
suppress progressive groups and deflect blame for deteriorating inter-Korean
relations.
Won will remain behind bars at a Suwon detention center pending sentencing. The
next trial session is scheduled for Oct. 1, but the sentencing date has not yet
been fixed.
Some 60 domestic and foreign reporters were on site to cover the court hearing,
including Japanese television, but the audience was restricted to 40 people.
"The court will not allow the taking of any photographs or TV videotapes for
the protection of the nation's security and for preservation of order in the
court," Judge Shin said.
Defections have been growing rapidly both in number and frequency in recent
years, and nearly 14,000 North Koreans have resettled in the South since the end
of the Korean War in 1953.
Over 4,500 people have been exposed as spies for the communist North since 1948
when the two Koreas were first divided, according to officials at the Defense
Security Command.
The Korean Peninsula -- considered the last front line of Cold War -- remains
divided with the two Koreas technically still at war, as the 1950-53 conflict
ended with a ceasefire, not a peace agreement.
Won Jeong-hwa, 35, admitted in court before Suwon District Court Judge Shin Yong-suk to having collected information on South Korea's key military installations and passing it on to North Korean agents in China.
She is also accused of gathering information on other North Koreans who defected
to the South and reporting them to North Korean officials.
Won was teary throughout the court session in which media and public access was
heavily restricted.
On Tuesday, she submitted a written statement admitting to the charges against
her and repenting of her past activities as a spy, according to the court.
"I now only have a seven-year old daughter. If you would give me another
chance to live, I will live a life of repentance in South Korea," she wrote,
according to prosecution officials who described the statement to Yonhap News
Agency.
"I had believed all my life that to live for the (North Korean) leader (Kim
Il-sung) and general (Kim Jong-il) was everything and had fully performed my
duty. However, while living in the South, I started to have doubts about the
North Korean regime, and my mind was in emotional conflict," she wrote.
"It is my sin to have been born in the North," she said.
Won was arrested on Aug. 27, three years after the military intelligence began
monitoring her, following a report by one of the military officers she approached
him to extract information. Investigators said she exchanged sexual favors for
the information.
Her key missions included locating and possibly assassinating Hwang Jang-yop, a
former secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party and the highest-ranking North
Korean to defect to the South.
North Korea earlier this month claimed that South Korea fabricated Won's case to
suppress progressive groups and deflect blame for deteriorating inter-Korean
relations.
Won will remain behind bars at a Suwon detention center pending sentencing. The
next trial session is scheduled for Oct. 1, but the sentencing date has not yet
been fixed.
Some 60 domestic and foreign reporters were on site to cover the court hearing,
including Japanese television, but the audience was restricted to 40 people.
"The court will not allow the taking of any photographs or TV videotapes for
the protection of the nation's security and for preservation of order in the
court," Judge Shin said.
Defections have been growing rapidly both in number and frequency in recent
years, and nearly 14,000 North Koreans have resettled in the South since the end
of the Korean War in 1953.
Over 4,500 people have been exposed as spies for the communist North since 1948
when the two Koreas were first divided, according to officials at the Defense
Security Command.
The Korean Peninsula -- considered the last front line of Cold War -- remains
divided with the two Koreas technically still at war, as the 1950-53 conflict
ended with a ceasefire, not a peace agreement.
