Another spy with orders to assassinate the late Hwang Jang Yop has been unmasked in South Korea, according to prosecutors.
The First Public Security Department of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office revealed the news today, saying that it apprehended Lee Dong Sam, a 46-year old male, after he was ordered by the General Bureau of Reconnaissance to kill Hwang, who passed away of natural causes on October 10th.
Lee apparently received espionage education in China over the course of around six years from 1998 to 2004.
According to the prosecution and public security authorities, Lee finally received the orders to assassinate the former Chosun Workers’ Party secretary from Director of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance Kim Young Cheol in December, 2009, and they allege that he thereafter spent time in China preparing to enter South Korea via Thailand disguised as a defector.
However, during this period Lee is said to have heard about the arrest of Dong Myung Kwan and Kim Myung Ho while somewhere in Southeast Asia, so he delayed his plan, arriving in the South in August.
Dong Myung Kwan and Kim Myung Ho were each sentenced to ten years in jail in June for plotting to kill Hwang.
Lee reportedly operated under an alias, Lee Geon Woong, while both in China and Southeast Asia and also during standard questioning by the National Intelligence Service and governmental organs immediately after arriving in the South.
However, during post-defection questioning, other, legitimate defectors apparently realized Lee’s purpose and raised the alarm with the security forces, so, on the brink of exposure, he suddenly claimed to be a former No. 35 Department of the Central Committee agent who had left the North to evade corruption charges.
According to the prosecution, while other would-be assassins Kim and Dong were members of the Bureau of Reconnaissance of the Chosun People’s Army, Lee came from the No. 35 Department of the Workers’ Party, a department responsible for overseas espionage and international terrorist operations until early last year, when it, the Operations Department and the Bureau of Reconnaissance were merged into one organization, the General Bureau of Reconnaissance under Kim Young Cheol.
