Kim Hyon-hui
Kim Hyon-hui
Main page
1802603

Kim Hyon-hui

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Kim Hyon-hui

Kim Hyon-hui (Korean: 김현희, born 27 January 1962), also known as Okhwa, is a former North Korean agent and mass murderer, 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 shortly after being convicted and sentenced.

After leaving North Korea, 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, the eldest child of two girls and two boys, was born in Kaesong on 27 January 1962, but her family later settled in the country's capital, Pyongyang. Her father was a career diplomat and, as a result, she and her family lived in Cuba for five years. Kim excelled as a student and in after-school activities.

She was originally trained as an actress, starring in North Korea's first Technicolor film, though her father, disapproving of her being an actress, refused to let her act again after her appearing in two films. 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 Il Sung University to study biology, before transferring to the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, where she studied Japanese. However, she had barely begun her studies there when she was recruited for work.

Soon after joining the North Korean intelligence agency in 1980, Kim was given a new name, Ok Hwa, and sent to live in a compound outside of Pyongyang. The compound was mentioned by Kim as "Keumsung Military College", yet the name wasn't mentioned by anyone else before or since. 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 people kidnapped by North Korea. Later, Kim testified that Taguchi was known to her as Lee Un-hae (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 memorise a document from a mock embassy.

She was sent to Macau to learn Cantonese so that she would be able to pose as Chinese when sent on overseas missions. They were also trained to shop in supermarkets, use credit cards and visit discos, amenities that did not exist in their homeland.

Kim was then allowed to travel through Europe with an older man, known to her as Kim Seung-il (金勝一). This was part of her extensive preparation to complete a mission that was of great importance to the ruling Kim family. In 1984, they flew first from Pyongyang to Moscow, from where they travelled to Budapest, where they were given fake Japanese passports and identities, and began posing as a father and daughter touring Europe together. Then, they visited Vienna, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Zurich, Geneva, and Paris before going separate ways: the younger Kim returning to Pyongyang via Macau, Guangzhou, and Beijing, and the older Kim going to Seoul to complete a separate mission. There, the older Kim's contact was discovered by South Korean agents and police, and the older Kim barely managed to escape South Korea with his life.

In 1987, Kim was given an assignment to plant bombs on KAL 858. She was told that the order came directly from Kim Jong Il, and was handwritten. She was told that if she were successful, she would be able to return and live with her family and would not have to work as an agent afterward. She was once again paired with Kim Seung-il, who was recovering from a stomach operation.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.