Not long ago, the BBC published an interview with Kim Kuk-seong (pseudonym), a North Korean defector who was said to have served as the head of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance in North Korea. Mr. Kim made some controversial claims in Korean society.
A representative claim is that “agents sent from North Korea in the early 1990s worked at the Blue House for 5-6 years and returned to North Korea safely.” By the way, there is a list of people who worked in the Blue House in the past, but among them, can’t you find a missing person who went to North Korea? This is an argument that looked down on Korean society too lightly.
He also explained, “A task force (TF) team was formed to assassinate Hwang Jang-yup in a top secret, and I personally directed it.” Two agents dispatched by the General Reconnaissance Bureau to assassinate former secretary Hwang Jang-yup were arrested as soon as they entered Korea and sentenced to 10 years in prison. They have already served their sentences and are living in hiding in Korean society. How absurd they must have been when they heard that Mr. Kim was conducting them.
The BBC introduced Mr. Kim, saying, “For 30 years, he played the role of ‘a leader’s eyes, ears, and brains’ in a North Korean intelligence agency and rose to the top. . He added, “We haven’t verified all of his testimony, but we have confirmed his identity and found solid evidence for some of his claims.” However, there are people in South Korea who know Kim’s identity much better than the BBC. It is not true that Mr. Kim worked for an intelligence agency for 30 years. He defected from North Korea after being in charge of a foreign currency earning company under the General Bureau of Reconnaissance in China. In North Korea, a person in charge of earning foreign currency under the General Political Bureau or General Bureau of Reconnaissance is recognized as a senior or senior member. It must have been something like this that Mr. Kim was the chief of the Reconnaissance General Bureau. However, before he was in the foreign currency earning company under the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, he worked for two other agencies and worked only to earn foreign currency for the rest of his life as a civilian. The person in charge of foreign currency earning affiliated with the General Bureau of Reconnaissance must have been there for about five years, as he said himself. With common sense, can the General Bureau of Reconnaissance suddenly send a high-ranking senior executive who has a thick bone and knows many secrets to China for 30 years in the South Korean affairs department to earn dollars? It is also not true that he is working for a South Korean intelligence agency. It is known that he retired early after spending about a year at the National Security Strategy Institute under the National Intelligence Service, where high-ranking North Korean defectors enter. I’ve heard about Mr. Kim, what kind of career he has and what he sold in China, but I won’t reveal that. No matter how world-class the British BBC is, the South Korean media should know better about North Korea-related information. CNN in the United States was also humiliated by rumors of the death of Kim Jong-un in April last year.
Among Kim’s claims, there is a passage about the sinking of the Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island as “a military operation carried out under the special orders of Kim Jong-un and an achievement.” “Even if North Korea tries to build a road, it must be approved by the supreme leader. It is an operation that cannot be executed without the direction of Kim Jong-un.” Of course, this is something everyone knows. If Kim Jong-un had sunk the Cheonan and bombarded Yeonpyeong Island, he would not be able to survive in North Korea.
However, there are also North Korean defectors who are well acquainted with the details of the sinking of the Cheonan, and are hiding in South Korea. Even the world-famous BBC broadcaster reported that “the identity of this person has been confirmed, but the claim cannot be confirmed.” Although it is impossible to verify, Mr. A, who testified, was in a position to know more about the sinking of the Cheonan than Mr. Kim, who interviewed the BBC. Mr. A is living hiding his identity and has not been interviewed by any media. I can’t reveal it because he did not consent to the disclosure, but I have verified his identity sufficiently.
The development process of the sinking of the Cheonan that he described is as follows.
The Cheonan was sunk by a small submersible at the Nampo Liaison Office in the West Sea under the General Bureau of Reconnaissance. Until 2009, the Nampo Liaison Center was under the Ministry of Operations of the Workers’ Party of Korea. North Korea operated two land liaison stations and four maritime liaison stations, which performed infiltration and return guidance to South Korea, and combat reconnaissance missions. Then, in 2009, during the establishment of the Kim Jong-un succession system, the Operations Department was integrated into the General Bureau of Reconnaissance and became the 1st Bureau of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance (land and sea reconnaissance bureau). The Nampo Liaison Center, which aims to penetrate the sea, also operates a small submarine.
Under the direction of Kim Jong-un, Kim Yong-chol, director-general of the reconnaissance general, directly commanded the attack on the Cheonan. It is said that the Cheonan was targeted because it was weak in detecting and defending submarines.
Since December 2009, North Korea has been monitoring the coordinates and movements of the Cheonan, and has decided to attack at dawn, targeting bad weather.
The Cheonan attack team included three small submersibles carrying six people. Since a six-seater is very small, it is correct to call it a submersible rather than a submarine. It consisted of a pioneering team in group 1, an attacking team in group 2, and a cover team in group 3. Team 1 was tasked with guiding a safe route, such as breaking the ice so that they could be dispatched at any time from Nampo, where the harbor is frozen in winter. Group 2 was the attacking team for the Cheonan, and Group 3 was responsible for covering and manning in response to possible counterattacks after the attack of Group 2, but was also responsible for re-attacking if the attack of Group 2 failed.
North Korea is said to have painted the torpedoes prepared to attack the Cheonan three times. Even if the torpedo fragments were discovered, it was pointed out that the paint was applied three times, and the intention was to call it a rigged torpedo. In fact, no torpedo fragments were found that were painted three times, but a torpedo propelling body labeled No. 1 was found. It is difficult to confirm in detail whether this number 1 was a mistake caused by North Korea not disassembling the torpedo inside, or whether it was intentionally written.
After months of preparation, on March 26th, North Korea’s sinking of the Cheonan was finally successful. Not everything went smoothly. It is said that the Group 1 submersible, which was leading the operation and pioneering the route, broke down. Nevertheless, the infiltration, attack, and return of the 2nd group were carried out safely.
Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, gave a lecture commemorating the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Party at the headquarters of the Party Central Committee on the 10th, Chosun Central TV reported on the 11th. (Photo = Captured from Chosun Central TV) NewsisIt is said that after the Cheonan provocation, Kim Jong-un and Lee Sol-ju came directly to the Nampo Liaison Center. He praised the achievements of the Cheonan attack team and gave him a so-called ‘business card gold watch’ with his name on it as a gift. In addition, he said that the attack team members should be raised by the party, and sent the 2nd sub-submersible crew to the desired university, and all were given three or more houses in Pyongyang.
Afterwards, the 2nd and 6th groups who attacked the Cheonan were said to have been dispersed as officers of the National Defense Commission, students of Kim Il-sung Advanced Party School, Kim Il-sung University, and People’s Economic University. It has been more than 10 years since the sinking of the Cheonan, so they must have already established themselves as key North Korean officials. As Kim Young-cheol, Director General of Reconnaissance, did, we may have welcomed them without knowing their identities even when they came down to Korea for a meeting.
Group 2 received many privileges, but groups 1 and 3 complained that there was no ‘consideration or preferential treatment’. Of course, I don’t know how he would have comforted me again later.
This is the full story of the attack on the Cheonan that Mr. A revealed. In South Korea, it is known that the sinking of the Cheonan was committed by Kim Yong-chol, the director general of reconnaissance, under the direction of Kim Jong-un. Given North Korea’s command-and-delivery structure, this is something anyone can expect.
The new testimonies that Mr. A revealed specifically include that the Nampo Liaison Office carried out a mission to attack the Cheonan, and that three small submersibles were put into operation to target the Cheonan for a long time. .
It would be impossible for us to verify Mr. A’s claim against North Korea. However, the identity of Mr. A is certain. It can be said that A was the person closest to the truth of the sinking of the Cheonan while living in North Korea out of about 34,000 North Korean defectors who have entered South Korea. Watching the BBC bravely publish an article even though the identity and claims are not accurate, I thought that at least Mr. A’s testimony regarding the Cheonan would be able to be reported as the subject of this ‘book cafe’.
Zhu Seonghagi zsh75@donga.com
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