In being robbed of the case, the local NSA branch had missed the opportunity to make a name for itself, even though it was technically their case to handle given that they had registered it. The DSC tied those defections to him and made it into a family espionage ring. The man pleaded that he had called his daughters only because he missed them, and that it was they who had sent him money for no sinister purpose however, the defection of more family members derailed any chance the man might have had of escaping the charges. Seven or eight family members who had been caught up in the case defected as soon as they became aware of his arrest. DSC agents took the man to one of the organization’s private detention facilities in Hoeryeong and carried out the interrogation there.

Partly for this reason, the case hit a snag when the DSC became aware that the NSA was also tailing the Party secretary, and arrested him immediately for fear of losing the race. Because it is a prominent way to have one’s ability recognized and get on the fast-track to career success, handling registered cases isĪ big deal for the security agents or Party cadres in charge. However, once a case has been registered, the investigation can only begin on the say-so of the provincial branch. The NSA has small branches at the municipal, county and local levels, and there are no restrictions on what each one may ordinarily do in its own area. Only prolonged investigations involving agents collecting information on suspects need to be registered in this way simpler cases with swift arrests do not.

When a municipal branch discovers or is warned about espionage in its area, the first thing it does is ‘register’ the case with the relevant provincial branch. In terms of the National Security Agency, espionage cases are usually the jurisdiction of provincial branches. After being alerted by the Chinese trader, the NSA registered the case so as to begin their operations, but the DSC decided to carry out its investigation off the record. In this case the local NSA planted agents around the suspect’s family, while the DSC tailed the Party secretary himself. I am not sure of the legality of this in South Korea, but it is considered the most accurate investigative technique in North Korea. In North Korea, when somebody is suspected of being a spy, intelligence agents are first dispatched to tail the target and meticulously build up a dossier of personal information over a protracted period of time. The DSC and the local branch of the NSA both moved quickly, deeming it to be a serious espionage case. The trader had become suspicious of the Party secretary and the large sums of money he had been asked to give him, and subsequently reported his suspicions to the NSA and DSC in quick succession. The case involving this Party secretary began when a Chinese-Korean trader who regularly went back and forth between China and North Korea reported him to the authorities. In North Korea, cases of espionage are handled by the National Security Agency and Defense Security Command. There was but a single piece of evidence to prove the man’s guilt the fact that his daughters, who had defected and were by then settled in South Korea, had sent him between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. The “spy” was the Party secretary at Yuseon Hospital in the city of Hoeryeong. In September 2009, Defense Security Command and the Hoeryeong branch of the National Security Agency had a battle, one that began with the roundup of a so-called “spy”. Meanwhile in North Korea, as has always been the case, accusations of espionage are common and, of course, much simpler to make stick.Ĭonsider this case from three years ago.

In another case, an agent who visited North Korea and received direct instructions from Kim Il Sung admitted that he had formed an anti-state organization, only to have the court disallow the evidence! Despite obtaining proof of the espionage charges, the court refused to admit it on the grounds that permission had never been granted for the covert means by which it was collected. Imagine my further surprise upon learning of a case in which people who had been spying on South Korea and liaising with the North received a mere five years in jail! When I first came to South Korea I was really surprised to find that there are people in this country who sympathize with the Kim Jong Il regime.

Espionage definition