Forgotten Spy Saga Sparks Call for Reinvestigation

Forgotten Spy Saga Sparks Call for Reinvestigation

The Korean Times
07-19-2005 20:15

SEOUL (Yonhap) _ Decades after a prominent North Korean journalist was executed by hanging in South Korea on espionage charges, calls have risen to reinvestigate one of the country's most intriguing spy sagas, one that had been long forgotten.

The question is whether the purported defector was a real communist spy or a mere turncoat who just sought personal comfort after being disenchanted with the harsh systems in both Koreas of the time.

Some even suspect that the Cold War episode might have been a South Korean put-up job aimed at strengthening its anti-communist campaign. But one thing is clear: he was a victim of intense inter-Korean rivalry.

Lee Su-kun, left, former vice president of the (North) Korean Central News Agency, stands trial at a court in Seoul on charges of spying for North Korea in May 1969 after defecting to South Korea in March 1967. Bae Kyung-ok, Lee's nephew-in-law, is seen at left. Lee was executed after receiving a death sentence, while Bae served 21 years in prison for his involvement in the double spy case.
/ Korea Times File

On March 22, 1967, Lee Su-kun, then vice president of the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, defected to South Korea while covering a Korean War armistice commission meeting at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom.

Lee's defection was dramatic enough to capture world headlines. In a pre-planned arrangement with U.N. Command officials, the North Korean journalist jumped into a sedan waiting for a British general that was about to leave the meeting site.

The car then sped off through a hail of pistol fire by North Korean guards.

In South Korea, Lee, then 44, received a hero's welcome during daily public rallies. Huge settlement money and expensive gifts, including a home and a car, were showered on him.

Soon afterward, he was involved in a sex scandal with a top female singer and married a college professor.

However, Lee's happy days didn't last long. South Korean intelligence began suspecting that he might be a North Korean spy, because he seemed to be deliberately avoiding criticizing then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in public speeches.

Two years later, the balding "hero" again came into the media spotlight, but in a different way. One bitterly cold day in January 1969, Lee secretly left South Korea using a forged passport with his nephew-in-law after disguising himself with a wig, horn-rimmed glasses, mustache and trilby.

The nephew, Bae Kyung-ok, was related to the wife he had left in North Korea when he came to the South.

Four days later, the duo were arrested by South Korean agents at Saigon's TanSon Nhat Airport aboard a plane heading to Cambodia after leaving Hong Kong.

Six months later, Lee was sentenced to death. Bae later received a life prison term but was set free in 1989 after his life sentence was reduced to a 21-year term.

Much of the episode still remains a mystery, and there are more questions than answers as to Lee's true identity. A formal answer may be forthcoming, because it is listed as one of dozens of historical incidents the National Intelligence Service plans to reopen.

President Roh Moo-hyun, a former human rights lawyer who was once jailed for supporting pro-democracy demonstrations during the past authoritarian regimes, has a major policy of casting light on South Korea's turbulent modern history.

"I'm sure that my uncle (Lee) was not a spy. There was no evidence and everything was made up," Bae said in a recent interview with the Yonhap News Agency.

"I just helped my uncle leave South Korea and live in another country, like Switzerland. He didn't like either Korea. He told me he wanted to make money in a third country by writing a book on the two Korean states," he said.

Bae, now 67, said he filed a petition with the Seoul District Court last week demanding a retrial of the case.

My family was destroyed. I lost my honor and youth. I have one last wish before I die, which is to see the truth of the case made public, said Bae, who walks with a limp from being tortured and spending a long time in prison.

In his petition, Bae cited various published reports that he believes indicate that his uncle was not a North Korean spy.

The most decisive evidence cited by Bae are remarks by Rhee Dai-yong, a former South Korean intelligence chief in Saigon who arrested Lee and Bae on board the plane from Hong Kong.

In an interview with MBC-TV in 1999, Rhee quoted his boss, Kim Hyung-wook, head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), as telling him that Lee was not a North Korean spy, but a pure defector.

Rhee said that shortly after the incident, he accompanied Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu's trip to Seoul and was called out by his boss.

"Director Kim asked me, 'You know Lee Su-keun is not a double agent,' and I replied, 'Yes, I know that.' He then told me, 'You should not say this in any place as there should be no one else who knows this," Rhee told MBC-TV.

In an interview with Yonhap last week, Rhee confirmed the remarks he had made to MBC, saying that I am not a person who tells a lie. I don't lie even at gunpoint.

I feel sorry for Lee and Bae. If I didn't arrest them, this case would not have taken place," said Rhee, a retired Army brigadier general who spent five years in a Vietnamese prison after Saigon fell to the communists in 1975.

Rhee refused to discuss further details, citing a law that bans him as a former government official from leaking any intelligence he obtained while on duty. Rhee said he underwent investigations by the prosecution several times due to the remarks.

The then South Korean intelligence was notorious for political manipulation. It was often accused of fabricating North Korean spy cases to crack down on political dissent.

The incident happened when Cold War tension drastically escalated on the Korean Peninsula in the aftermath of North Korea's capture of the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo and the infiltration into Seoul of a North Korean commando unit to try to assassinate then-President Park Chung-hee.

Another key piece of evidence cited in Bae's petition was a statement by Kim Jeong-min, a member of the North's ruling Workers Party who defected to South Korea in 1988.

Kim publicly said in South Korea that after Lee's death sentence was executed in the South, the Workers' Party held a special lecture for its members titled "This is the end of a traitor".

Other evidence cited in the petition: At the time of his arrest, Lee possessed only Korean-English and English-Korean dictionaries and an English grammar book, a sign that he planned a new life in another country. No code book or other material related to spying activities was found.

Lee stayed two days and two nights in Hong Kong en route to Cambodia via Vietnam, prompting questions on why he didn't go directly to the North via China.

Lee's death sentence was executed while other accessories to the case, such as Bae, were still on trial, which was unusual in South Korea's legal system. Also, Lee didn't appeal the death sentence, prompting speculation that his written review request might have been deliberately ignored.

I found there was something wrong in this case, said Lee Jin-woo, a defense lawyer who helped Bae file the petition. I strongly feel that this case was fabricated by the KCIA from the very beginning.

Lee said he is considering calling the former South Korean intelligence chief in Saigon to testify as a witness.

I am very positive that the truth will be revealed soon. What I believe in this case is the truth. Nothing more," he said.

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