[imText1]While the trial of Kim Hak Ju, who was involved in the adduction of Rev. Kim Dong Sik, is underway, one of the witnesses, Lee Chun Gil, a former abductor team member of the North Korean National Security Office testified, “To help with the abduction, one of the abductor team members disguised himself as a defector and approached Rev. Kim Dong Sik.”
Lee, whom The DailyNK met on the 20th said, “The abductor team made a North Korean woman Lee Sun Hee (pseudonym) to approach Rev. Kim Dong Sik to act as a decoy. “She earned his trust by being around him for ten months.”
On the day of the abduction, the woman made Rev. Kim eat his meal at Yerim Restaurant and it seems most likely that she provided the exact date and location for the abduction. Rev. Kim knew Lee only as a North Korean defector, so he did not suspect her even on the day of the incident.
This is the first time it was revealed that an abductor team had been disguised as a North Korean defector to abduct Rev. Kim. Until now, it had been suspected that Dong, one of the defectors Rev. Kim had looked after, provided information of the whereabouts of Rev. Kim for the abduction.
Hong Jin Hee, a broker and a former defector, who was arrested in Shenyang, China for having planned the mass entrance of defectors into South Korea, is also known to have been abducted by two North Korean abductors disguised as a `Gisaeng (a singing & dancing girl) Special Service Team’.
Lee said, “I was able to hear what happened when I met those who were involved in the abduction of Rev. Kim Dong Sik. The abduction team specifically planned the abduction for ten months from April 1999 until January 2000.”
Rev. Kim, who visited Yenji, was lured by the woman in January 2000 and got abducted in front of Yerim Restaurant located in downtown, Yenji. The abductor team prepared a taxi in front of the restaurant, and when Rev. Kim took the taxi, they abducted him.
The taxi drove Rev. Kim out of Yunji city, moved him to Sanhe, and transferred him to another car that had a number placard that said <吉 H 423-22> that drove him to the Sino-Korean border. The agent who moved him from Sanhe to North Korea crossing the Tumen River was Kim Hak Ju, who is currently on trial.
Kim Hak Ju, who is charged with violating the National Security Law, as it has shown in the trial for Ryu Yong Hwa, is expected to be sentenced for more than ten years of imprisonment.
Lee also testified about the language the agents used. Although they speak only in secret, due to the possibility of being bugged, they call abductees “rice cookers.”
The information about the abductees is called directions for the rice cooker. For example, a rice cooker made in South Korea means the abductees’ nationality is South Korea and directions for Korean rice cookers means information about the abductees from South Korea.
Lee said he had worked as an agent in the abductor group from September 1997 to December 2000, abducting tens of North Korean defectors and North Korean human rights activists to North Korea, but decided on defection to South Korea, feeling guilty about the inhumane abduction activities.
