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Andrew Salmon

The arrests of two would-be assassins in South Korea last week has shone a light on the shadowy world of spies who cross the border of this divided peninsula.
It was revealed last Tuesday that the North Korean pair had been detained after entering the South in the guise of defectors, via Thailand. They are awaiting trial.
Their mission was reportedly to kill Hwang Jang-yop, a former head of the North Korean workers' party. Hwang is regarded as the top-ranked defector resident in the South. 
The initial trickle of defectors arriving from North Korea has been increasing yearly over the past decade; there are more than 20,000 in the South now, according to the Ministry of Unification, and they are arriving at a rate of about 40 per week.
Defectors commonly arrive via Southeast Asia after taking the so-called 'Underground Railway' - the perilous escape route through China.
Those who succeed in reaching the South are screened and debriefed by South Korean intelligence for a month. They are then monitored during three-month residential orientation programmes before being released into society.
 How many spies are hidden among defectors is unknown, but the latest incident has generated calls for more stringent monitoring.
 'We don't know that much about this [situation], due to limited information, but we can guess that it is increasing simply because we have an increasing number of North Korean defectors here,' said Dr Kim Tae-woo,  of the Korea Institute  for Defence  Analyses.  
'As long as defectors can come, the path is open to infiltrators.'
While spies are popular fodder for South Korean thrillers - the 1999 blockbuster Shiri   launched a new wave of Korean films, and last year's television show Iris  was the top series of the year - real plots come to light only occasionally.
Still, those familiar with espionage were unsurprised at the incident.
 'It is not unusual,' a former South Korean intelligence official said of the planned assassination. 'It is rare, but it can happen.'
 A famous hit took place in 1997, when a defector named Lee Han-young was shot dead in the stairwell of his flat.  It was revealed that the previously unknown Lee was the nephew of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's  first wife and had been planning to write about Kim's private life. The killer - a North Korean asset inside the South - was never caught.
That killing was positively surgical compared to earlier operations.
In 1987, Korean Air flight 858 blew up in mid-air after leaving Abu Dhabi for Seoul, killing all 115 aboard. Two North Korean agents were captured in Bahrain: one committed suicide with a cyanide capsule while the other was taken to Seoul,  where he later admitted that the pair had planted a bomb on the plane. The plan was to derail the 1988 Seoul Olympics.  
In a 1983 bombing of the South Korean cabinet, seven key members of the government were killed during a diplomatic trip to Burma, now Myanmar. Three North Korean officers were identified in the area. One was killed in a gunfight during his arrest; the others tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Both were tried; one was  hanged and the other jailed. 
The latter confessed that their aim was to kill South Korea's then-president Chun  Doo-hwan - who arrived late and so missed the explosion - in hopes of precipitating an overthrow of the Seoul government.
And in 1968, a platoon of  commandos from the North stormed the South Korean presidential mansion, aiming to kill then-president Park Chung-hee  and kick-start a revolution. Only one was captured while the remainder were killed. 
In each case, despite the capture and subsequent confessions of the operatives, Pyongyang officially denied responsibility.
The latest revelation followed the mysterious sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan  last month and North Korea's announcement on Friday that it was seizing South Korean assets at Mt Kumgang, the jointly run tourist resort inside the hardline state.
'If you look at the history of 'wet operations', it ebbs and flows depending upon relations between the two Koreas,' said Dr Kim Byung-ki, a security expert at Korea University.  
 'North Korea's leadership is not unitary - there are public security and army groups which have their own gurus who have wherewithal to strike when necessary - and demonstrations of loyalty are important,' Kim continued. 
'This, and the sinking, could be demonstrations of loyalty to Kim Jong-il, thereby showing political support for Kim Jong-un.'   
 North Korean watchers believe a succession process is under way in Pyongyang, with Kim Jong-il trying to emplace his youngest son Kim Jong-un as successor. 
Still, the two spies awaiting trial may lead peaceful lives. Operatives in South Korean custody who have renounced North Korea have been, after extensive interrogations and debriefs, released into society.
Kim Hyun-hee (codename 'Mayumi'), the North Korean agent captured after the 1987 airline bombing, is reportedly married and lives in a secret location. Her autobiography, The Tears of My Soul,  has been published in English.  
 Kim Shin-jo, the commando captured during the 1968 assault, wrote a series of books about his experiences and lectured extensively on North Korean covert units. Married with children, he is  a Protestant pastor   outside Seoul.
 If the two latest spies do not turn, however, their fate may be grim. Kim Son-myung, a South Korean accused of supporting the North during the Korean war, was captured by southern forces in 1950. Refusing to change his beliefs, he remained in jail until 1995.



Spies and assassins tread familiar path in Korean history