North Korean Spies Convicted

The Ilshimhoe spy group that has been responsible for helping ferment anti-US sentiment in South Korea and transferring state secrets to North Korea which included members of a leading political party, have been convicted:

A Seoul court convicted five people, including a Korean-American businessman, of spying for North Korea, but acquitted them of charges of forming a spying ring, saying the group was too loosely organized to be called a formal organization.
Jang Min-ho, 45, also known as Michael Jang, received a nine-year prison term from the Seoul Central District Court and a 19 million won ($20,391) fine.
He took orders from a North Korean agent in China, and provided confidential information about South Korea. Jang was also convicted of possessing anti-state propaganda materials.
Four others were also convicted of cooperating with Jang and spying for North Korea.

Here is reason given for why the group didn’t receive a stiffer penalty by being considered a formally organized group:

“The court acknowledges that Jang recruited the four accused and formed individual relationships with each of them,” said Judge Kim Dong-o, who presided over the trial. “But, it is hard to identify their group as an anti-state organization under the National Security Law because such an organization should have a certain hierarchy and system.”
Prosecutors want the ruling overturned.
“We cannot agree with the court’s judgment that Ilsimhoe is not an anti-state organization,” Shin Jong-dae, prosecutor with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office in charge of the cases, said yesterday. “The court interpreted the National Security Law too tightly and narrowly.
“Under legal principles, more than two members are enough to call it an organization,” Shin said. “The court said Ilsimhoe had only four initial members, so it was not enough to be called an organization. We have a hard time accepting the judgment.
“The court also said Ilsimhoe had no platform and regulations, but that runs contrary to the testimonies of the accused.”

I predicted long ago that the Korean government would do their best to cover this up because the spy ring not only has links to the Democratic Labor Party, but has also been linked to South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun’s administration:

It was confirmed on November 26 that among the documents found at Jang Min-ho’s residence, the name of a Cheong Wa Dae secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security, was brought up several times. Jang, the key member of the “Ilsimhoe” spy case, was arrested by the National Intelligence Service on charges of involvement with student activists.

In accordance to this, the Public Security Department is reviewing ways to summon the presidential secretary as a reference and investigate how his name ended up in reports to the North Korea.

A public security official stated, “Secretary “A” worked as a student activist before with Sohn Jung-mok (42), who was recently placed under the arrest. As matters stand, Jang has sent a lot of information to North Korea based on Son’s statement which he attained through Secretary A.”

President Roh began the cover up by removing National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu from office for doing his job and uncovering the spy ring. Here is what Kim had to say at the time:

“We are investigating additional suspects in the case”. Asked who will succeed him, Kim told the Chosun Ilbo it was “very important” who becomes the next NIS chief. “Some of the candidates are unsuitable due to concerns that they tend to do what [politicians] want them to do. Considering the presidential election next year and the operations of the NIS, the right candidate would be politically neutral and have a global view and knowledge,” he said.

Of course Roh appointed a political hack Kim Man-bok to the office and the spy scandal investigation was never expanded to follow its links to the Blue House and further within the Democratic Labor Party. These five that were convicted received extremely light sentences that will probably be commuted in the near future by the South Korean government once the media attention around the case dies down.

The convicted spy ring leader Jang Min-ho is not totally out of hot water compared to the others because Jang is in fact a Korean-American who once served in the US Army at Yongsan Garrison Seoul and spied on the US military from there. Will the US press the case against Jang? I doubt it, but the US should. However, this case makes it very clear that much of the anti-US activities in South Korea is organized by North Korean agents with the implicit approval of political parties and the ruling government in South Korea. Shocking, but I’m really not surprised.

You can read a whole lot more over at One Free Korea who has a particularly good analysis posted as well as over at DPRK Studies.