hankyoreh

Mar. 6. Kim attempted suicide earlier in the day. (by Kim Tae-hyeong

By Kim Won-chul, staff reporter

A man surnamed Kim, 61, who was hired by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to acquire and deliver the Chinese government document that is suspected of having been forged in the espionage case of a Yoo Woo-sung, a North Korean refugee of Chinese ethnicity who used to work for the city of Seoul, tried to end his own life. The suicide attempt increases the likelihood that the NIS ordered Kim to falsify the documents or that he was at least aware that they were fake when the NIS and the prosecutors submitted them to the court.

Furthermore, Kim allegedly scrawled “National Intelligence Service” in his blood in the motel room where he attempted suicide, suggesting that he may have been expressing anger at the NIS for ordering him to falsify the documents or for trying to make him a scapegoat in the case.

According to conversations with sources in the prosecutors on Mar. 6, Kim is both a North Korean refugee with Chinese nationality. He purportedly has a variety of occupations and frequently travels between China and South Korea. He also carries the title of consultant for the Qingdao Korean-Chinese Business Association.

Considering Kim’s status and his actions, he is undeniably someone who would have been very useful to the NIS. As a Chinese national, he is also able to travel to North Korea freely. Based on Kim’s frequent trips between South Korea and China, it is assumed that he had a close working relationship with the NIS and performed a variety of functions. Kim was reportedly an informant who received a monthly payment of 3 million won (US$2,820) and a 10 million won bonus in this case.

The NIS and the prosecutors submitted three documents to the court as evidence, Kim allegedly was involved in obtaining and transmitting the document issued by Chinese customs officials. This is the document that the Digital Forensics Center at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office concluded had a different stamp when it announced the results of its assessment of the document on Feb. 28.

With likelihood increasing that the document had been falsified, Kim - who was involved with obtaining and delivering the document - tried to kill himself.

While the specific reasons for Kim’s suicide attempt have not been disclosed, the very fact that he attempted suicide makes it clear that the documents submitted by the NIS and the prosecutors were falsified.

Kim was questioned by prosecutors on three occasions after the results of the document evaluation were announced. If he had acquired the document that he provided the NIS through ordinary means, he would have had no reason to make the desperate decision to end his life.

The next point that must be investigated is who made the decision to falsify the documents. There are only two remaining possibilities: either the NIS asked Kim to falsify the document, or it just asked him to acquire the document and he falsified it himself and then provided it to the NIS.

But rather than Kim committing the crime on his own, the more likely interpretation is that the NIS was somehow involved in this. Considering that the documents submitted by the NIS and the prosecutors had consular certification stating that they had been translated by Lee In-cheol (an NIS agent assigned to the South Korean consulate in Shenyang, China) and that other NIS agents were involved in the process of delivering the document, Kim could not have committed the crime by himself.

There is also evidence showing that the NIS tried to shift the blame to Kim. The prosecutors said that they were able to bring in Kim for the first round of questioning with NIS cooperation. Even though the NIS would have had no reason to cooperate with the prosecutors in regard to someone who posed a threat to them, they gladly helped the prosecutors with their investigation.

When asked if Kim altered his testimony over the course of the three rounds of questioning, a source with the prosecutors said that they were in the middle of confirming this, hinting that Kim had changed his story.

It is at this point that one can infer that Kim abandoned his original position and gave testimony that was damaging to the NIS. It is possible that Kim participated in the prosecutors’ investigation after agreeing with the NIS to testify that the documents had been issued normally. Later, when the prosecutors shoved objective evidence in his face and questioned him aggressively, he may have broken his promise with the NIS.

It could be that when he wrote “National Intelligence Service” in his own blood in the middle of his suicide attempt, he was expressing his anger and resentment at the NIS. Kim left behind four suicide notes, one each for the Blue House, prosecutors, the opposition leaders Kim Han-gil and Ahn Cheol-soo and his son.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]