Kim Hyon-hui
 | The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (March 2009) |
Kim Hyun-Hui (Hangul: 김현희, Hanja: 金賢姬; aka Ok Hwa) (b. January 27, 1962, Kaesong) is one of the North Korean agents responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987. [1]
Early life
Kim Hyun Hui's father served in the North Korean Department of Foreign Affairs and as a result, the family lived in Cuba for some time. Kim excelled as a student and in after-school activities. In college, she studied Japanese. This later proved to be a fateful decision for Kim and led to her selection as an agent for the North Korean Communist Party.
Training
Once selected to become an agent for the Party, Kim was given a new name Ok Hwa and sent to live in a compound outside of Pyongyang. There, Kim was trained in martial arts, physical fitness, and Japanese for three years. Her language instructor was a Japanese woman using the Korean name Lee Eun-Hye (李恩恵, 리은혜) who had been apparently kidnapped from Japan, later Kim testified she was Yaeko Taguchi.[2][3] [4] Additionally, students at this facility were shown propaganda films and indoctrinated regarding North Korean communism. At the end of her training, Kim was rigorously tested. Part of her final exam required her to infiltrate and steal documents from a mock embassy.
Kim spent time in China studying Chinese and was allowed to travel through Europe with an older gentleman, known to her as Kim Sung Il (金勝一). This was part of her extensive preparation to complete a mission that was of great importance to the ruling Kim family. Her younger brother had died and her sister, who had married, was now a widow.
Korean Air Flight 858
Kim was given an assignment to blow up Korean Airlines 858 and was told that the order came directly from the "Dear Leader himself, Kim Jong-Il." Kim was told that the mission was very important and that its successful completion would result in the re-unification of Korea. Additionally, Kim was told that she would be able to return and live with her family and would not have to work as an agent afterward. She was once again paired with Kim Sung Il who was recovering from an operation to his stomach.
She was traveling with a fake Japanese passport under the name of Mayumi Hachiya (蜂谷 真由美, Hachiya Mayumi) along with Kim Sung Il, who posed as her father and used the name Shinichi Hachiya (蜂谷 真一, Hachiya Shin'ichi). The two traveled through Europe and eventually met other North Korean agents in Budapest who provided them with the materials to complete their mission. Once they had left the bomb behind (hidden in a radio device) in a luggage rack of KAL 858, Kim Hyon Hui and Kim Sung Il disembarked in Abu Dhabi and traveled to Bahrain. The two agents were apprehended in Bahrain after investigators discovered that their passports were fake. Kim Sung Il bit a cyanide pill that was hidden in a cigarette and died. Kim Hyun Hui unsuccessfully attempted to do the same. She was hospitalized and then later interrogated.
At first, she insisted that her name was Pai Chui Hui, an orphan from Northern China who had met an elderly Japanese man with whom she was traveling. She denied any sexual involvement with her partner Kim Sung Il. However, her accent also did not sound like she came from northern China. Kim Hyon Hui was then transferred to South Korean custody.[5]
According to Mr. Choi's testimony at a United Nations Security Council meeting, Kim was taken to see the prosperity of Seoul outside of her prison cell. The testimony said that she had been taught in North Korea that American culture had supplanted the Korean culture in the South and that she had also been taught that the rich exploited the poor who lived in poverty. According to the testimony, what she saw outside of her prison cell made her realize that everything that she had been taught regarding South Korea was propaganda.[5] The testimony stated that once she came to this realization, Kim Hyon Hui broke down, admitted that she was in fact North Korean and confessed the details of her role in the bombing of Flight 858.
Aftermath
For her role in the bombing of KAL 858, Kim Hyun Hui was sentenced to death in March 1989 but was later pardoned by South Korea's president, Roh Tae-woo. She later wrote her autobiography entitled "The Tears of My Soul" and donated the proceeds to the families of the victims of Flight 858. Kim Hyun Hui lives in an undisclosed location and remains under constant protection for fear of reprisals, from either victims' families or the North Korean government which has branded her a traitor.
In December 1997, Kim married a former South Korean intelligence agent who also served as her bodyguard.[6]
In March 2009, when meeting family members of Yaeko Taguchi, she mentioned that there is a chance that Taguchi may be alive.
References
- ^ MacDonald, Eileen (1991). "Kim Hyon Hui". Shoot the Women First. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-41596-3.
- ^ "내 일어(日語)선생 이은혜가 다구치 맞다" 김현희, NHK 인터뷰… "北 사망주장은 거짓" 조선일보 2009.01.16 (Korean)
- ^ 金贤姬：我日语老师是被北韩绑架的田口八重子 朝鲜日报中文网 2009.01.16 (Chinese)
- ^ Japanese Abduction Victim Still Alive, Says KAL Bomber Chosun Ilbo Jan.16,2009
- ^ a b United Nations Security Council Verbatim Report 2791. S/PV.2791 page 10. 16 February 1988. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
- ^ News Roundup on TVB Jade, 23:00(UTC+8) 11 March 2009
Bibliography
Kim, Hyun Hee. ''The Tears of My Soul''. William Morrow & Co, 1993, ISBN 978-0688128333
