Top North Korean spy tasked with recruiting union leaders

North Korea tasked one of its most experienced intelligence agents with recruiting leaders of a militant South Korean umbrella labor organization, intelligence sources have told the JoongAng Ilbo.

An official from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) observes a raid on the headquarters of the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul on Jan. 18, following allegations that a union official collaborated with North Korean intelligence. [NEWS1]

North Korea tasked one of its most experienced intelligence agents with recruiting leaders of a militant South Korean umbrella labor organization, intelligence sources have told the JoongAng Ilbo.

According to counterintelligence officials who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity, the North Korean intelligence officer — known by the alias Ri Kwang-jin to South Korean authorities — works for the Cultural Exchange Bureau of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, an agency that specializes in establishing underground organizations in South Korea to foment domestic unrest.

Ri is in his mid-60s and is reported to have infiltrated South Korea several times since the 1990s.

South Korean authorities believe Ri is the de facto leader of the North’s operations in South Korea and have tracked his movements over the years, the sources told the JoongAng Ilbo.

“There are not many North Korean agents who have the freedom to operate abroad, so Ri Kwang-jin is unrivaled in that regard,” one former high-ranking North Korean official who defected to the South told the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.

A South Korean diplomat told the JoongAng Ilbo that the North likely targeted the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) for recruitment because “it is one of the largest left-leaning organizations in South Korea.”

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) and National Police Agency on Jan. 18 raided the KCTU’s headquarters in Jung District, central Seoul, as well the homes of former and current KCTU executives in South Jeolla and Gyeonggi, the headquarters of the KCTU-affiliated Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, and a so-called “peace shelter” on Jeju Island — all to investigate allegations that trade union officials violated the National Security Act, which bans pro-Pyongyang activities.

Ri is believed to be the North Korean agent who met a KCTU executive and three other suspects targeted by the recent South Korean counterintelligence operation, including an official from the medical workers’ union, a former union organizer at a Kia Motors factory in Gwangju and the director of the Jeju shelter.

NIS officials believe that all four South Korean suspects were present for a meeting with Ri in Phnom Penh in September 2017.

South Korean authorities also filmed the KCTU executive receiving $10,000 in what they believe were operational funds from Ri during a September 2018 meeting in Hanoi and later exchanging it into South Korean won at a currency exchange near Namdaemun Market in central Seoul, according to intelligence sources.

Ri is also believed to be the North Korean agent who recruited four South Koreans to campaign against Seoul’s acquisition of U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighters in 2017.

The four individuals, based in Cheongju, North Chungcheong at the time of their arrest, were members of the North Chungcheong Comrades’ Association and previously agitated for the abolition of the National Security Act.

The NIS is currently investigating whether past KCTU protests were directed by Ri and other North Korean agents, who intelligence sources named as Bae Song-ryong, Kim Il-jin and Chon Ji-son.

The KCTU has denied allegations that its leaders engaged in anti-state activities at the behest of North Korea and demanded that the National Security Act be scrapped.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]