JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This month, South Korea's president expressed regret to North Korea for drones that flew into the North between September and January. More than seven decades after the Korean War, a covert conflict simmers on waged with drones, balloons and cyberattacks. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports on a former South Korean covert operative and his fight for recognition.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SILMIDO")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, non-English language spoken).
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: The first South Korean movie to be seen by 10 million viewers was the 2003 action drama "Silmido." It tells the story of how the South trained agents to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. Three years later, the mission is aborted. The agents are ordered to be executed, but the agents mutiny and take their own lives instead.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
KUHN: "Silmido" is based on a true story about South Korea's shadow warriors. Kim Seong-gil, now 84, is one of them. Kim remembers a hot night in August of 1955. He was 13. He and his dad slept out in the yard while his mom and sister slept inside their home on North Korea's east coast.
KIM SEONG-GIL: (Through interpreter) Suddenly, someone shook me. Several people with guns pointed at me stood me up. One of them covered my mouth and said, if you make a sound, you die.
KUHN: South Korean agents abducted Kim and his father and took them to South Korea. The two were trained separately to infiltrate the North. They were briefly reunited the following year.
KIM SEONG-GIL: (Through interpreter) My father looked at me and said, you must survive. I didn't understand what he meant at the time. Then he left, and that was the last time I saw him.
KUHN: The year after that, Kim and other agents were sent to scout a port in North Korea. He made two attempts, both unsuccessful.
KIM SEONG-GIL: (Through interpreter) I thought about turning myself in to see my mom. But then I remembered what they had taught us. Anyone with the slightest hint of South Korean influence would be killed in North Korea.
KUHN: He returned to the South a couple of days later in hopes of seeing his father again, but he never did.
KIM SEONG-GIL: (Through interpreter) Just imagine it. I was separated from my mom at age 13, kidnapped along with my dad, and then separated from him, too, eight months later.
KUHN: Kim was discharged in 1959, alone, homeless and sworn to secrecy about his past. He eventually got a job as a civil servant. South Korea's government denied the existence of the covert ops until 2003.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (inaudible).
KUHN: The year before that, former operatives violently protested for compensation. The liberal administration of President Kim Dae-jung was trying to address human rights violations under former military governments. It was at this time that former lawmaker Kim Seon-ho (ph) set out to find the truth about the spies.
KIM SEON-HO: (Through interpreter) The issue of spies sent to North Korea is a result of the division of our Korean people and the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. They are victims of that Cold War.
KUHN: Kim led a parliamentary audit, which found that South Korea trained around 14,000 covert operatives of whom 11,000 were sent into North Korea, 8,000 were killed. He also helped to make the movie "Silmido." He says the operatives were seen as expendable. They were recruited from the lower classes and were promised jobs and money to buy homes.
KIM SEON-HO: (Through interpreter) Not only did the government fail to keep its promise, but the officers actually embezzled a significant portion of the money that was supposed to go to the agents.
KUHN: Kim Seong-gil was not notified of his father's death until 2009, 53 years after he was killed on a mission. Kim sued the government and won, and a Seoul court rejected the government's appeal last June.
KIM SEONG-GIL: (Through interpreter) I testified in court that I don't hold any grudges because that's how things were back then. I was just born into the wrong fate. And I said the only things I wanted was a sincere apology from the government before I die.
KUHN: South Korea's parliament passed a law to compensate former covert agents in 2004. The Defense Ministry apologized in 2024 to agents who died in the incident depicted in the movie "Silmido" but not to any other operatives. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Chuncheon, South Korea. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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