Re: Korean American Spies

["ysk" <ysk@kimsoft.com>]

Hi, folks:

I am still digging up info on this fascinating subject:

In July 1948, Park Hyon Yung ordered Yi Sung Yup to come to North Korea. Yi
was taken in by communist partisans in preparation of his trip to North
Korea, which led to the extermination of the partisans thanks to Yi's secret
reports to the US military. Unaware of Yi's duplicity, Kim Il Sung appointed
him minister of justice.  Yi's cover was almost blown in April 1950, when
two American spies, Alice Hyon and Lee Sah Min, were caught red-handed in
Moscow.  Alice Hyon began working for the US intelligence during World War
II and worked for CIGK, a secret organization that read Korean mails and
wiretapped phones in South Korea.  Alice met Park Hyon Yong and Yo Ung Yung
in Shanghai before Liberation and reestablished contacts with them in Seoul.

Alice Hyon and Lee Sah Min (aka William Yi) "defected" to North Korea in
April 1949 via Prague, Czechoslovakia. Kim Il Sung's security organ was well
informed of the situation and opposed to their entry to North Korea, but
Park Hyong Yong vouched for them and prevailed, making Alice his personal
secretary. In April 1950, Alice and Lee Sah Min were arrested at the Moscow
airport by Kim Il Sung's secret police. In their possession were Kim Il
Sung's secret war plans. They confessed, implicating Yi Sung Yup and Yi Gang
Gook, a Korean educated in America. They denied any guilt and once again,
Park Hyon Yung vouched for their party loyalty.