One Big, Leaky Basket

South Korea has arrested a Taiwanese man for spying for North Korea. What’s not entirely clear is whether the man was spying for prodigal son Kim Jong Nam, and what JN’s relationship is to North Korea these days:

The information sent to the North, according to prosecutors, included Newsweek Korea magazine’s coverage of the detention and expulsion of Kim Jong-nam from Japan in 2001 after he tried to enter that country on a fraudulent passport. The man also forwarded tapes of Korean television coverage of the incident.

Other information the man is accused of forwarding to the North includes a copy of a book by a German physician and outspoken critic of North Korea, Norbert Vollertsen, entitled “Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place”; a public report on North Korea by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; South Korean movies depicting North Korea and published accounts by North Korean defectors of their experiences in their homeland. The data also included information technology material from magazines and academic papers.

And more seriously, he was also accused of attempting to obtain a digital hydrographic map of the South Korean coastline. Prosecutors said he was unsuccessful because the map is available only to maritime companies and given only to buyers who can demonstrate a need for it.

The prosecution also cited a series of payments from the North Korean agent in China. The arrested man allegedly received $15,000 from the ethnic Korean in China in 2001, after receiving $55,000 in 2000.

The Donga Ilbo is also talking about espionage today, noting how the number of spy arrests has declined. Taking the words right out of my own mouth, the Donga notes that there are several ways to explain this. First, the South Koreans could be trying not to make waves with the North. Second, the North might find the infiltration of its humint assets into the South to be unnecessarily expensive and strenuous, since members of the South Korean government will eventually give them whatever they need via OhMyNews (more here).

A third explanation I can’t resist adding is that the South Korean counterintel agents are all too busy running around with cans of raid and flyswatters. At least they’re not having problems with recruiting, but you have to wonder how effective the background check process is.

On a related note, a South Korean court has ordered the government to dig up a hill north of Seoul where a local resident claims to have found a North Korean tunnel back in 2000.

Lee, a resident of Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, reported to a broadcasting company in March 2000 that he found a tunnel in a hillock in his neighborhood, which was supposedly dug by North Korea with the purpose of invading the South. When the company aired a program covering the story, the Ministry of National Defense vehemently denied Lee’s claims.

Did I mention that Lee wants a substantial reward? At the time, those “shingo chongshin” posters with the beached submarine were all over the subways, so I guess I’d want a substantial reward, too. Related post here.