The spy who came in from the North
CPyongyang when he was assigned to an espionage training school in 1961. “I had to leave without so much saying goodbye to my wife,” he said. Sent on a mission to the South to try to recruit a senior government official whose brother had defected North, he smuggled himself across the border by swimming the Yeomhwa river and managed to meet his parents and siblings. But he was cold- give as ondemned to death twice, former spy Seo Ok-Ryol spent three decades in prison, most of it in solitary confinement. Now aged 90, the only thing he wants to do before he dies is go home — to North Korea.
Born in what is now South Korea, where he still has relatives, then a soldier and spy for the North — where he left a wife and two children — Seo epitomises the enduring divisions of the peninsula, and the way Koreans have been buffeted by the forces of history and politics.
Seo is stooped and gaunt, walks with a cane, and has a truculent manner, but his mind remains clear. “I’ve done nothing wrong but loved the fatherland,” he said — adding that for him, that encompasses both North and South.
The South repatriated some 60 former shouldered when he tried to long-term prisoners in 2000, mostly official a letter from his brother. soldiers, guerillas and spies, following a ‘‘As far as my brother is concerned, landmark inter-Korean summit. he is as good as dead for me. I reported
But Seo was not eligible as he had to government authorities that he died signed a pledge of loyalty to the South to during the war,” the man told him, refusing secure his release from prison, obtaining the missive. But he did not turn Seo in. citizenship as a result. His mission a failure, Seo stayed in the
Now activists are mounting a campaign South for a month, constantly on edge for him and 17 other ageing ex-inmates trying to hide his code book, until a radio still loyal to Pyongyang to be allowed to broadcast of a series of numbers secretly go home. Born on an island in southern ordered him back. But he arrived late at Korea, Seo became a communist while a the pickup point and missed the rescue student at Seoul’s boat.eliteKoreaUniversity and joined the North’s forces during He tried to swim the rest of the way, the Korean War, retreating with them only for the current to sweep him back to as American-led United Nations troops the bank, where he was overpowered and advanced. detained by South Korean marines.
He joined the North’s ruling Workers’ “As a spy, you are supposed Party and was working as a teacher in yourself by either swallowing a the to kill poison capsule or using weapons,” said Seo, adding: “There wasn’t even enough time to commit suicide”. After three decades in prison, Seo compromised in 1991 and promised to abide by the South’s laws.
Released on parole, he moved to the southern city of Gwangju, close to his birthplace and siblings, but dreamed of returning to his wife and sons in a unified Korea. Seo remains unyielding in his loyalty to the North, praising it as “egalitarian” society where he could graduate from its top Kim Il Sung University on state subsidies.
In his cramped rented apartment, he echoes Pyongyang’s defence of its nuclear and missile programmes as necessary to protect it from the United States, and dismisses President Donald Trump as a “raving madman”.
Gwangju is the heartland of South Korea’s political Left, and 25 activist groups have launched a petition asking authorities to let Seo — who was hospitalised for two months earlier this year with heart trouble — and his fellow refuseniks be repatriated, saying their pledges were forced.
A few years after Seo’s release, a Korean woman living in Germany who visited Pyongyang told him that his wife and sons were still alive — but advised him not to try to contact them for fear of undermining the men’s career chances.
Seo — who has not remarried — is defiant and cold, but was lost for words when asked what he would tell his wife if he saw her again. “I would like to say — thank you for staying alive,” he said, controlling his voice.” I’ve been missing you. I never expected to be parted from you for so long a time.”