Won Jeong-hwa

Who is Won Jeong-hwa?

Won Jeong-hwa is a North Korean who was accused by South Korea of spying for the North and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a court in Suwon on October 15, 2008. South Korean authorities arrested Won in August 2008 on the accusation of seducing South Korean military officers in exchange for classified information on military installations, which North Korea denies as being South Korean propaganda. The North denies that she even is an agent, calling her "human scum". Her step father, Kim Dong-sun, is also being prosecuted on spying charges, who was arrested at the same time as Won. According to AFP, Won was sent by the NIS to the South in 2001 in the guise of a defector and was assigned to tour the SK military to give anti-communist lectures. She used the occasion to come in to contact with military officers who she slept with for sensitive military information. Won was also found guilty of being involved in the kidnapping of a South Korean businessman from China to North Korea in 1999, and of trying to locate a top defector, Jang-yop Hwang, living in the South. Won attempted suicide in prison on December 23, 2008.