Tag: Spies

I can’t feel sympathy from anyone from the western aligned world who gets arrested while visiting or living in Russia. It is well known the risks of becoming detained whenever Russia needs a hostage:

The detention of a South Korean national by Russian authorities on espionage allegations has emerged as a significant diplomatic challenge for Seoul, particularly against the backdrop of strained relations between the two nations.

Observers suggest that the detainee could be caught up in Russia’s hostage diplomacy tactics, and anticipate that the situation could drag on for months, if not years. Moreover, this incident could signal a shift in Russia’s stance toward North Korean defectors, particularly considering the detainee’s purported involvement in assisting North Korean workers in the far eastern region of Russia.

Earlier this week, the Russian state-owned media outlet TASS agency reported that a South Korean man named Baek Kwang-soon, aged 53, was apprehended in January on charges of espionage in Vladivostok. He was subsequently transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention facility in February, typically reserved for high-profile political detainees. The Lefortovsky Court has extended his detention until June 15.

This marks the first known case of a South Korean national being arrested on espionage charges in Russia, where such offenses carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service is one of the suspects of who was the overall mastermind of a prostitution ring that specialized in servicing people who work for the government or defense industry:

The two brothels in Virginia (referred to in the affidavit as ‘Target Locations 8 and 9’) were situated in Unit 245 at the Avalon Mosaic in the quiet suburban town of Fairfax and Unit 649 of the nearby Hanover Tysons

Intelligence experts are becoming increasingly convinced that six high end brothels in the suburbs of Boston and Washington, D.C. were set up by a foreign nation as an espionage ‘honeytrap’.

They believe the brothels – allegedly masterminded by a 41-year-old South Korean woman – targeted politicians, high ranking government officials and defense contractors. 

But the mystery is which country was behind the scheme. Russia, China, Korea itself, or even Israel are al seen as possibly being behind the scheme.

‘Having the Koreans out front could have been a false flag to give China or another country plausible deniability if the plot unraveled,’ a one-time CIA senior operations officer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

Daily Mail

Considering how stupid the people going to this brothel are they probably shouldn’t be working any where near the government:

Aspiring clients had to submit a membership application before they could book an appointment.

Required documentation included government-issued ID, phone and email contacts, employer information and credit card records, according to court records.

Bizarrely, numerous political, military and business officials provided it all without blinking an eye and proceeded to have sex in an apartment that for all they knew was outfitted with equipment to record video and audio footage.

‘Finding idiots like this would be pure gold for an intelligence service running a honeypot,’ said the retired foreign spy. 

A retired CIA senior operations officer was equally flabbergasted. 

‘This is at the level of a Nigerian prince scam,’ she said.

You can read much more at the link, to include a number of pictures of the prostitutes. Judging by the pictures these were some high-end Korean prostitutes working for this ring. Would China be able to recruit this many South Korean women to work for them? It seems more likely that the ROK NIS would be able to pull this off and according to the article ROK intelligence has attempted honeypot operations in the past to collect intelligence. It will be interesting if we will ever hear who was actually behind this honeypot operation.

The real reason this lawmaker wants to take away investigative power from the NIS is probably because of all the spies they have found in organizations supporting the Korean left over the years. With that said he is right that most intelligence agencies had off counterintelligence investigations such as in the U.S. where the FBI will investigate counterintelligence threats:

Since its establishment in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has not only collected intelligence on cases related to North Korea, but also investigated them. Come January, the South’s most important intelligence headquarters will be barred from investigating cases related to North Korea.

Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, a former high-ranking official at the NIS, says prohibiting the intelligence agency from engaging in law enforcement activities — even those concerning North Korea — was necessary to establish democratic control over its security services.

“The intelligence service has become accustomed to flouting legal boundaries on the pretext of protecting national security, and is nearly free from outside control,” the spy-turned-lawmaker told a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

Taking away investigative functions from the NIS is one of the first steps in “institutionalizing democratic control and accountability” of South Korean intelligence, he said, making the case for the contested law that bars NIS involvement in North Korea-related investigations. A key pledge of the previous President Moon Jae-in administration, the revised law was passed by the Democratic Party of Korea without support from the People Power Party.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but Rep. Byung-kee wants the KNP to do the investigations. These are the guys that could not figure out crowd control before the Itaewon crushing tragedy and now he wants them to investigate North Korea spies?

A ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O has a great article about the investigation into North Korean spies in South Korea. What kind of mental illness must you have if you think the Kim regime is a better form of government than what the ROK has?:

Similarly, the underground organization “HGH” (ㅎㄱㅎ) (presumed to be HanGilHoe or One Way Committee) in Jeju Province was created after North Korean agent Kim Myung-sung met with another spy suspect Mr. Kang since 2017 in Cambodia. (1:47)   It was revealed that while Kang was in Cambodia, he stayed at the same residence in Siem Riep as North Korean agents—Kim Myung-sung and 4 other agents stayed for 2 nights and 3 days, pledging loyalty to the Kim regime, becoming Workers’ Party members with a ceremony, and receiving spy training.  The duration of 2 nights and 3 days was relatively short, because in the past, the similar process occurred in North Korea, rather than a third country, and it took longer due to the complexity of the decryption method, among other reasons.

Kang is a former chairman of the Jeju Island branch of the Progressive Party (진보당의 제주도당), which was formerly the United Progressive Party, which was outlawed by the Constitutional Court.  Its leader Lee Suk-ki went to prison more than once for violating the National Security Law, inciting insurrection, and embezzlement.  Lee Suk-ki was released early from prison by Rho Moo-hyun in 2003 and then again by Moon Jae-in in 2021.

Kang recruited two people—a  Jeju labor official and a “peasants’ activist” (농민운동) to organize HGH.  In October 2021, North Korea ordered HGH to conduct activities calling for suspending ROK-U.S. combined military exercises, dismantling ROK-US-Japan military cooperation, and opposing the import of advanced weapons (F-35) from the U.S. by mobilizing groups, such as the Progressive Party’s Jeju branch (진보당 제주도당), KCTU Jeju Branch’s April 3 Unification Committee (4·3통일위원회), and the Jeju Branch of the National Federation of Peasants (전국농민회 제주도연맹).

The Cultural Exchange Bureau agent instructed spy suspects to form underground organizations in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, and Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, wage an anti-government struggle in solidarity with “progressive candlelight forces,” and propagandize the Juche ideology and the greatness of North Korea’s “State Affairs Chairman Kim Jong Un.”

After their establishment, these underground organizations were operating under Kim Myung-sung’s orders of “struggle against the U.S.” “infiltrate and seize power in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and expand their power” and “denounce Yoon Suk-yeol,” among others. 

East Asia Research

You can read much more at the link, but this should all serve as a reminder of the possible motivations of the anti-USFK and ROK government protesters especially if they are affiliated with the KCTU.

Here is the least surprising news of the day:

When South Korea’s largest labor umbrella group called for an end to the alliance with the U.S. and conscription during weekend rallies before Aug. 15 National Liberation Day last year, some observers questioned what those demands have to do with improving workers’ rights.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) and police now suspect that the messages chanted in the Seoul streets might have come directly from Pyongyang and that it was orchestrated by regime sympathizers engaged in espionage activities here at its behest.

According to civic groups and other sources on Tuesday, NIS officials and police have been investigating allegations that some liberal activists, including party officials, helped promote anti-government activities after taking orders from North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

Over the past several weeks, the investigators have raided the homes and offices of the key suspects in Jeju, Jinju, Jeonju and Changwon.

It all began in July 2017 when a former high-ranking official of the Progressive Party allegedly met a North Korean agent in Siem Reap of Cambodia, where the South Korean was told to create a secret organization on Jeju Island and was informed how to communicate with North Korean officials.

It is alleged that the official later conspired with two other activists to organize a group, through which they helped stage anti-U.S. protests and supported certain election candidates. They are suspected of communicating with North Korean officials for more than five years. Taking control of “the Jeju 4.3 unification committee” under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the anti-U.S. protest organizer, suspending military exercises between Seoul and Washington and protesting the procurement of high tech weapons are among the orders they allegedly received from the North.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but to me this news is not surprising and according to the article the NIS began this investigation five years ago when President Moon was in power. However, only recently were they allowed to move forward with an official investigation. It is pretty clear that the Moon administration did not want to go after their own liberal supporters and the Yoon administration is going after them as part of their efforts to retaliate against North Korean provocations.