Left Flank

Won Jeong-hwa, the North Korean defector and suspected spy appeared in South Korean court today.

When asked by the court if she was aware of the contents of the indictment, she answered «yes» in a barely audible voice.

Prosecutors have said Won is hardly the meek woman who appeared in court.

They submitted pictures of her showing scars she received in commando training in the North and previously told local media Pyongyang wanted to use her as an assassin.

Won's lawyers did not speak with reporters at court.

The spy case comes as ties between the Koreas have chilled after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February and angered the North by saying Seoul would stop what once had been a free flow of aid and tie handouts to progress the North makes in nuclear disarmament.

Prosecutors told local media they suspect Won of sleeping with several South Korean officers and receiving classified information from them on items such as weapons systems and troop movements, which she then passed on to North Korea.

The North has disavowed any connection to her and lambasted her for leaving the country.

«(Won is) human scum crazy for money, vanity and swindling,» its KCNA news agency last week quoted an official with the communist state as saying.

Although the sex-for secrets spy in that film didn't pose as a defector, still this episode brings to mind 2001's Shiri.

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It's another bad Germany-Korea comparison come to embarrassing fruition. It's also an illustration how intelligence agencies need a tight leash, because .spies consider laws and politicians an intrusion into their work.

Meanwhile, there are also questions as to why Won is being arrested only now, when authorities first caught on to her three years ago. Having begun a secret investigation of her in May 2005, police had already confirmed that she entered the North Korean consulate in Shenyang, met with North Korean intelligence operatives and exchanged money. Some are pointing out other incomprehensible aspects of this matter, such as why the authorities only watched her after she had been warned and barred from lecturing after saying during one lecture that North Korea's nuclear program was for self-defense, and why someone working as an operative would even say such a thing.

And, it's an illustration why diasporas make for fetid swamps for infiltrators.

But, hey, we're all Koreans, one big unhappy family, right? Those South Korean dupes - hang them!

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