Kim Hyon-hui
| Kim Hyon-hui | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 27, 1962 Kaesong, North Korea |
| Residence | South Korea |
| Nationality | North Korean, South Korean |
| Other names | Ok Hwa, Mayumi Hachiya |
| Occupation | Former North Korean agent |
| Known for | Bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 |
| Notable work | The Tears of My Soul |
| Criminal penalty | Death sentence |
| Criminal status | Presidential pardon |
| Children | Two |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 김현희 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Hyeonhui |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Hyŏnhŭi |
| Japanese cover name | |
| Mayumi Hachiya | |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 蜂谷 真由美 |
Kim Hyon-hui (Korean: 김현희, born January 27, 1962), also known as Ok Hwa, is a former North Korean agent, responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987, which killed 115 people. She was arrested in Bahrain following the bombing and extradited to South Korea. There she was sentenced to death but later pardoned.
North Korea denies that Kim was born in the North, and regards her entire biography to be a fabrication of the South. Some districts in Japan fund North Korean-run schools which teach that Kim was a South Korean agent. According to Kim's testimony, she was taught Japanese in connection to her mission by Yaeko Taguchi, one of at least 13 Japanese abducted by North Korea.
In recent years, Kim has publicly expressed regret about the bombing and she has provided information about the state of affairs in North Korea as well as the possible state of abductees.
Kim was born in Kaesong, North Korea on January 27, 1962 but family settled in the country's capital, Pyongyang. Her father was a career diplomat and as a result, the family lived in Cuba for some time. Kim excelled as a student and in after-school activities.
She was originally trained as an actress, and starred in North Korea's first Technicolor film. In 1972, Kim was selected to present flowers to the senior South Korean delegate at the North-South talks in Pyongyang. After graduating from high school, she initially enrolled at Kim II Sung University, before transferring to the Pyongyang Foreign Language College, where she studied Japanese. However, she had barely begun her studies when she was recruited for work, because she was pretty, she believed.
Soon after joining the North Korean spy agency, Kim was given a new name, Ok Hwa and sent to live in a compound outside of Pyongyang. There, Kim spent seven years learning spycraft. Her training included martial arts, physical fitness, and three years of Japanese. Kim's Japanese instructor was Yaeko Taguchi, one of many Japanese kidnapped by North Korea. Later, Kim testified that Taguchi was known to her as Lee Eun-hye (李恩惠, 리은혜). Additionally, students at this facility were shown propaganda films. At the end of her training, Kim was rigorously tested. Part of her final exam required her to infiltrate and memorize a document from a mock embassy.
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Wikipedia