Posted on 10/17/2011 6:05:04 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Elite N. Korean defector joins S. Korea's spy agency
SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- A former regional head of a key North Korean youth organization was recently named a research fellow of an institute run by South Korea's spy agency, a source said Tuesday.
Sol Jong-sik represented Ryanggang Province for the League of Kim Il-sung Socialist Working Youth before defecting to South Korea in 2009.
The League, named after the late founder of the communist country, is a major social unit that mobilizes young North Koreans, including teenagers, and publishes a propaganda newspaper for them.
The 41-year-old was named as a research fellow of the Institute for National Security Strategy, which is affiliated with the National Intelligence Service, Seoul's spy agency, the source said.
He is believed to be analyzing North Korea's situation and involved in mapping out a strategy on how to deal with his former communist homeland, and with North Korean defectors.
More than 22,000 North Koreans have defected to the South to avoid chronic hunger and political oppression since the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a cease-fire.
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bump.
I am just guessing, and I guess a little hoping, that S. Korea has such individuals “on a very tight leash”.
I cannot imagine fewer positions more sought after by a double agent than those working directly inside the intelligence apparatus, as opposed to mere “informants”.
A really paranoid S. Korean could imagine this individual helping to facilitate other “defections” that become not “defections” after all. I’m glad I am not the S. Koreans that this individual reports to. I think I would have trouble sleeping at night.
No doubt one has to look out for such a possibility.
I hope an official “trolling” this blog understands I was not trying to cast dispersions directly on the individual. My imagination and my concern went to the job the individuals in charge have, in trying to vet the N. Korean defectors and afterward continue to protect their own intelligence. Like I said, it’s not a job I would want.
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