2 KOREANS TELL OF ABDUCTION AND FILM MAKING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: May 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630005-6
lanai mire) NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 15 May 1986
2 Koreans Tell of Abduction and Film Making
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Special to The New York Times
BALTIMORE, May 14? A South Ko-
rean film director and his actress wife,
who both disappeared into North Korea
under mysterious circumstances eight
years ago, emerged here today and
said they had been kidnapped on the di-
rect orders of the son of President Kim
Il Sung of North Korea.
Shin San Ok, the director, and his
wife, Choi Un Hui, met with two report-
ers here and told a story that they
found more bizarre than any screen-
play.
They said Kim 11 Sung's son, Kim
Jong II, who is widely regarded as the
most important Communist Party offi-
cial in North Korea today and the likely
successor to his father, was a movie
buff, with a personal collection of 20,000
films. The elder Mr. Kim is both head
of the Government and the party.
"Kim Jong II told us later he had or-
dered our kidnapping," Mr. Shin said.
The four-and-a-half hour interview was
conducted through an interpreter, with
Mr. Shin occasionally using English.
Mr. Shin said the younger Mr. Kim
told them he wanted to upgrade his
country's film industry and had or-
dered North Korean agents to kidnap
them separately, six months apart, in
Hong Kong, and transport them to
Pyongyang, where he sought their
assistance. Miss Choi, 54 years old,
who was seized first, said she refused
to help and was kept under house ar-
rest. Mr. Shin, 59, who was kidnapped
later, said he was told his wife was
dead and refused to cooperate also.
Twice, he said, he tried to escape, but
after his second effort he was impris-
oned for four years in Prison No. 6, out-
side of Pyongyang, along with 2,000
other political prisoners. Finally, he
said, in March 1983, after being reu-
nited with Miss Choi for the first time,
they agreed to cooperate in Kim Jong
Il's plans while all the time looking for
ways to make their escape together.
After that, they were taken to Bel-
grade, Yugoslavia, in April 1984, with
instructions to declare that they had
gone to North Korea voluntarily. They
complied and repeated this on subse-
quent occasions. South Korean authori-
ties maintained that they had been kid-
napped.
The two said they had won Kim Il
Jong's confidence after being awarded
several movie prizes in eastern Europe
for their productions in North Korea.
Traveled to Eastern Europe
Then they were allowed to travel to
eastern Europe together. Two months
ago, while on a trip to Budapest to dis-
cuss a joint North Korean-Hungarian
movie on Genghis Khan, they stopped
in Vienna, with permission, to probe
the possibilities of exporting North Ko-
rean films to the West.
While in the Austrian capital they
hatched their plan to stay in the West.
With the help of a Japanese journalist
Mr. Shin had known in the past, they
shook off a North Korean agent in a
taxi chase through the city and sought
asylum in the United States Embassy.
They also paid Kim 11 Jong back for his
kidnapping, they said, by tricking him
into depositing in the Bank of America
branch in Vienna 112.3 million that is
still in Mr. Shin's name.
Mr. Shin said he regarded the money
as "an insurance policy," but he has
not yet decided what to do about it. In
its only comment on their escape to the
United States, North Korea has ac-
cused them not of seeking freedom but
of trying to abscond with funds.
For the last month, they have been
debriefed in "safe houses" by Central
Intelligence Agency and-State_Peoart-
ment officials. A State Department of-
ficial said they had convinced Amer-
ican authorities that their story was
credible and would probably be given
permission to live in the United States.
Express Concern for Safety
Throughout the interview with this
reporter and Don Oberdorfer of The
Washington Post, the first they have
given since they sought asylum March
13, both expressed concern for their
safety. They said they had been told by
North Korean authorities that if they
ever escaped, they would be assassi-
nated. American security guards stood
outside the room in the hotel.
"I do believe there is a possibiity that
they will try to kill us," Mr. Shin said.
They have been regarded as "a find"
by American intelligence because of
the intimate details they have been
able to provide about the inner ruling
circle of North Korea which next to AI-
bania is the Communist country about
which least is known. In particular,
they were able to tell officials about
Kim Jong II, who is 47 years old and
who has been variously described as
close to death or in complete charge.
Described as Very Intelligent
They described him as a very intelli-
gent, ruthless official, who made every
decision, even the most seemingly in-
significant.
"He is a micro-manager," Mr. Shin
said. He said the funds for his film-
making company in North Korea were
handled directly by the younger Mr.
Kim, who had a large projection room
in his house and who seemed to have a
deep interest in films. It has never been
reported before that Kim Jong Il was
so intrigued by movies.
While they are largely unknown in
the West, Mr. Shin and Miss Choi had
celebrity status in South Korea and
achieved the same status in the North.
But in 1977, when this story beAins,
Mr. Shin had lost his license to direct
films in South Korea because, he said
today, of a dispute with the Korean
Central Intelligence Agency, which
"falsely" told President Park ChM
Hee that he was conspiring whit
younger directors against-the Govern-
ment. Miss Choi, Who briefly was c1f.7
vorced from Mr. Shin at that time, was
running an acting school in Seoul when
she was told that a Chinese business-
man in Hong Kong wanted to finance a
film for her.
On Jan. 14, 1978, while in Hong Kong,
she said, she was told by someone who
had worked for her husband that the
businessman was out of town, but that
she should wait. A Korean woman, who
later turned out to be a North Korean
agent, took her on a tour.
While at Repulse Bay, a part of Hong
Kong, a group of men who seemed to
know who Miss Choi was suggested a
"short" boat ride, and after first resist-
ing, Miss Choi agreed. "I didn't know
my way around and did not know how
to get back to my hotel by myself."
"I realized the boat was going
straight to sea," Miss Choi said, sti-
fling tears with a tissue. "I felt uneasy.
I thought this must be a robbery. I was
thinking about the money in my hand-
bag. I asked the woman what this was
about, and she just kept quiet and
began smoking cigarettes."
Awoke Being Carried to Ship
One of the men, she said, who looked
like a leader, said to her, "We are head-
ing for Kim Il Sung's embrace."
"I didn't quite understand what he
said," she said. "He repeated it. I felt
ill, I felt like the blood was being
drained. I fainted."
When she awoke, she said, she was
being carried aboard a cargo ship at
sea, where she was taken to the cap-
tain's cabin for the trip to Nampo, the
port near Pyongyang. When the ship
berthed, she was met by Kim Jong II.
She said she was given the use of a for-
mer house of Kim Jong Il and was
asked repeatedly to work for North
Korea, which she said she refused to
do.
Mr. Shin said that when his wife did
not return to South Korea as scheduled,
he called up the man who had served as
his wife's host. "He told me that he
could not speak over the phone and
asked me to come to Hong Kong."
He said he flew to Hong Kong and
was told by the intermediary that his
wife had "disappeared." But nothing
more.
He returned to Hong Kong in July
1978. On his way to dinner at the Re-
pulse Bay Hotel with a Korean, who
later turned out to be a North Korean
agent, he said, his car was stopped by a
number of men, one of whom was
armed with a knife. They put a sack
over his head, and doused him with
chloroform or something similar, he
said.
He also was transferred by boat to a
cargo ship and taken to North Korea.
When he aQte4,1nriatozmation about
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630005-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630005-6
his wife, he said he was told that the
South Koreans had murdered her. He
said: "I didn't believe that because she
knew President Park very well, and he
had no reason to kill her."
It is not clear why the North Koreans
did not reunite them as soon as he was
brought to North Korea, but the story
became complicated when he twice
sought to escape from his guest house.
He was imprisoned in a room with
about 60 other political prisoners, he
said. The majority of the 2,000 inmates
worked in mining, but he said the 60 in
his room did not have such onerous
physical work. He said the food was at
a starvation level, with meat served
only on New Year's day, and the daily
diet a mixture of grass, salt, and a bowl
of rice and corn. Four years passed.
In March 1983, he found his diet sud-
denly improving, and he was brought to
a banquet at Central Committee head-
quarters where for the first time he
learned that his wife was still alive. She
said she had been asking about Mr.
Shin and had been told repeatedly that
he would be coming to North Korea
soon, but was never told he actually
was there.
"Kim Jong Il asked me to be his ad-
viser on motion pictures and he said,
'Forgive us for what has happened in
the past,'" Mr. Shin said.
Miss Choi said she was never subject
to physical abuse or forced to do any
labor, but twice a week had to take part
in a "brainwashing" session.
After they agreed to cooperate in
1983, they were allowed to send a tape
recording to a friend in South Korea
saying that they were alive.
Mr. Shin said today that he wanted to
apologize to the various members of
the press who had reported his "un-
truth" about going to the North on his
own. Now, he said, he wanted the truth
told.
Had '18 Bodyguards'
They had hoped to escape while on a
trip to Berlin for a film festival earlier
this year, he said, but they had "10
bodyguards" who monitored their
moves too carefully. Most of them went
back to North Korea afterward, and he
was trusted enough to go to Budapest
without a large entourage of guards.
"My arrangement with Kim Jong II
was that I received $3 million a year to
do whatever I wanted, to make a
movie, or to keep for my personal use,"
he said. "I never used it for myself.
And they appreciated that."
While in Berlin, he said, he sent a
message to Kim Jong Il telling him to
deposit the 1986 funds in his Vienna
bank as soon as possible. He said $2.3
million was put in the Bank of America
branch in Vienna. He said he arranged
matters on his trip so that only his sig-
nature would be good for withdrawals.
Then, he said, he telephoned a Japa-
nese correspondent he knew from the
past to meet him and his wife for lunch.
He also hired a Japanese employee of
the hotel where he was staying, to take
a message to the American Embassy
that he was going to defect.
Mr. Shin could speak Japanese,
which made it easier for him to com-
municate. The North Korean Embassy
in Vienna was concerned about his
going to lunch with the Japanese out-
side of their sight, but he said he con-
vinced the North Koreans that to be
able to sell North Korean films in the
West, he had to appear as a free agent.
But once in a taxi with the Japanese
journalist, Mr. Shin said, he noticed
they were being followed by a North
Korean in another taxi. After they
eluded the tail, he said, the radio in the
taxi broadcast a message asking where
the driver was taking the "Oriental
passengers." Assuming that the North
Koreans were seeking the information
from the taxi company, he said he paid
several hundred dollars to the taxi
driver and told him to tell the company
one destination, but to take them in-
stead to the American Embassy.
When they arrived at the embassy,
he said, "they were expecting us."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630005-6