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Killings abroad, seduction all in a day’s work for North Korea's female agents

SEOUL — The assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has put the spotlight on Pyongyang’s use of women agents for extreme clandestine operations.

File photos showing Kim Jong Nam, (left) exiled half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan, on May 4, 2001, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on May 9, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AP

File photos showing Kim Jong Nam, (left) exiled half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in Narita, Japan, on May 4, 2001, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on May 9, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AP

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SEOUL — The assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has put the spotlight on Pyongyang’s use of women agents for extreme clandestine operations.

Former agent Kim Hyun-hee featured in one of the most high-profile operations by the North. In 1987, the then 25-year-old North Korean was instructed by her government to conduct the deadly bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 in order to deter foreign participation in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Ms Kim and a co-agent boarded the Korean Airlines flight in Baghdad, where they placed a suitcase bomb in an overhead locker. The duo left the aircraft during a stopover in Abu Dhabi. When the plane was flying over the Andaman Sea hours later, the bomb went off and all 115 people on board were killed.

Ms Kim and her co-conspirator were caught in Bahrain, where they took cyanide to try to evade capture. She survived the suicide attempt and was taken to Seoul where she was paraded before the international media.

The former agent, in her confession, said the attack was either ordered by then North Korean strongman Kim Il-sung or his son Jong-il, father of current leader Kim Jong-un.

“In North Korea, everything is about Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il,” Ms Kim was quoted saying then by the BBC. “Anything that was ordered by him could be justified. Any order would be carried out with extreme loyalty. You were ready to sacrifice your life.” 

She is currently living in a secret location in South Korea where she is heavily protected for fear of reprisal by North Korean assassins.

Not all female North Korean agents are deployed for violent missions though. 

According to a 2014 report by The Telegraph, some of these agents are reportedly assigned to high-level foreign officials in Pyongyang as part of a “seed-bearing programme”.

After seducing the foreign officials and bearing their children, the agents would then blackmail them into passing laws that favour Pyongyang, or to increase aid to it, The Telegraph reported.

North Korea also has a long history of deploying agents in foreign countries to carry out kidnappings and assassinations.

In January 1968, an elite force from the Korean People’s Army tried to assassinate then South Korean president Park Chung-hee in the presidential Blue House. 

Donning South Korean army uniforms, the North Korean commandos were at a checkpoint only 100m away from the Blue House when they were stopped, and a firefight ensued. More than 90 South Koreans were killed in the attack.

In October 1983, three North Korean agents set off a bomb in Rangoon, capital of the then Burma, now Myanmar. They had hoped to target then South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan, but the latter was delayed in traffic, saving his life. Seventeen South Korean officials, including four ministers, as well as four Burmese nationals died in the blast.

More recently, when North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain defected last year, the South warned of possible revenge kidnapping and killings. 

The death of Kim Jong-nam on Monday (Feb 13) is the latest operation said to involve North Korea’s secret operatives. AGENCIES

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