'I murdered 115 people on orders of North Korea': State's top female spy reveals horrifying truth of serving communist dictatorship that brought down plane

Defector says 'inexperienced' Kim Jong-un is desperate to shore up power

Kim Hyun-hee planted a bomb on a civilian aircraft in 1987, killing 115

She was given death sentence by Seoul but now lives free in South Korea



U.S. and South Korea raise threat level to 'vital' as missile could be launched 'at any time'

Obama administration fears pariah state will not issue standard warning to commercial aviation and shipping

North Korea warns all foreigners to evacuate South Korea as peninsula edges closer to nuclear war

UN chief says situation is slipping out of control

North Korea's former top female spy has revealed how she was snatched from her family to serve the secretive state - then asked to blow up a civilian plane that killed 115 people .



Kim Hyun-hee, who tried to kill herself with poison after her capture by the South Koreans and later escaped the death sentence, spoke out to try to attack her former Communist government bosses as warmongers.

Speaking at a secret location in South Korea, the 51-year-old former terrorist said she believes all the latest threats from Pyongyang are nothing more than attempts to shore up support for the new young leader, Kim Jong-un.

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Kim Hyun-hee was snatched from her family to serve the secretive state of North Korea and was groomed into becoming a spy

Young killer: Hyun-hee, pictured as a young girl in training, was ordered to blow up a plane, killing 115 people, when she was only 25 years old Threats: Former North Korean spy Kim Hyun-Hee, who blew up a South Korean airliner in 1987, says Kim Jong Un is sabre-rattling in a bid to strengthen his tenuous grip on power She and another agent, Kim Seung-il, who was posing as her father, travelled on the South Korean aircraft through Europe and on to Bahrain, disembarking after planting the plastic explosives bomb, hidden in a radio device, in a luggage rack. The explosion later sent the plane spinning into the jungle near the Thai-Burma border, killing everyone on board. Infiltrator: She was plucked out of school after the authorities noted her intelligence and trained in the deadly arts of espionage The 1987 attack killed all 115 people on board and led to the United States listing North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. Captured in Bahrain for possessing forged passports, the 'father' killed himself with a cyanide capsule but Kim, who was 25 at the time, was unsuccessful with her suicide attempt. Given the death sentence by a South Korean court, she was later pardoned and embraced life in the south.

Now married with two children she lives each day in fear that spies from the North will kill her. Regarded by many South Koreans as the North's equivalent of Mata Hari - the Dutch exotic dancer who was executed by firing squad in France for spying for Germany during World War 1 - Kim said she was now living a life of regret. Young, intelligent and beautiful, she was the perfect 'catch' for the North Korean regime looking for an agent they could train to pull off a spectacular 'hit' against their enemy, South Korea. 'I was taught that our leader, Kim Il-sung (the founder of the nation), was a God,' she told the programme. 'We were taught to put him before our own parents. We learned from early childhood to say "Thank you Great Leader for everything". 'And if you said the wrong thing, even if it was a slip of the tongue, you would end up in the Gulag. 'North Korea is not a State - it's a cult.' The regime noticed Kim when she was a teenager because of her sharp intelligence and beauty. She was singled out to become a spy. She was taught to speak perfect Japanese so she could operate in the outside world, but first, she said, she had to undergo military training.

Spy: Kim Hyun-Hee is now married to a South Korean man and has two children

'One day a black sedan showed up at my school. They were from the Central Party and I was told I had been chosen.

'I wasn't even allowed enough time to say goodbye to my friends - I was just told to pack.

'I was given one last night with my family.'

It was 1980 and she was sent to North Korea's elite spy training school in the remote mountains.



She was given a new name that she would operate under and taught martial arts and the use of weapons.

Finally, by 1987, she was ready to play a deadly role devised by the son of Great Leader - Kim Jong-il who was to became Dear Leader.

'In North Korea you needed Kim Jong-il's approval for the most minor things, let alone a spy mission. He personally ordered the operation to bomb the South Korean flight.'

Kim Jong-il's ultimate mission was to disrupt the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He believed that by blowing up a South Korean airliner athletes would be too scared to fly to Seoul.

A North Korean man passes by roadside propaganda depicting a soldier killing a U.S. soldier in Pyongyang, North Korea today. The poster reads in Korean 'Life or Death Battle. Merciless Punishment to U.S. Imperialists and Puppet Traitors'

The young female spy was teamed up with legendary North Korean agent Kim Seung-il and together they set out as father and daughter on the bombing mission.

After planting the bomb on Flight 858 they left the aircraft in Abu Dhabi and then made their way to Bahrain.

'We had to get out of Bahrain,' Kim told the ABC. 'But our next plane didn't leave for two days. I was so anxious, it was driving me crazy.'

The plane blew up and the pair were arrested two days later - but it was because the authorities realised they were travelling on fake passports.

While they were being searched Kim Seung-il told his female companion it was time to commit suicide.

He instructed her to bite down on an ampoule of cyanide hidden in their cigarettes.

She recalled him telling her: 'What awaits us is interrogation and eventually death. I have lived a long time and am an old man. But you are so young. I am sorry.'

Said Kim: 'I knew when an operation failed, an agent had to kill themselves. So I bit down on the cyanide ampoule. As I did I remembered my mother in North Korea. Then I blacked out.'

At the ready: Japanese forces set up Patriot anti-missile defence systems in Tokyo yesterday as the threat level over a North Korea missile launch was raised to 'vital'

Her 'father' died almost immediately, but she was revived and later flown to South Korea to stand trial.



During her interrogation she was driven through Seoul and she realised that everything she had been told about the 'evil' place by the North was nothing but a lie.

'I listened to how the agents around me spoke so freely. This contradicted everything I'd been told in North Korea. I realised then I'd taken innocent lives and I expected to be given the death sentence.'

She was sentenced to death but was later pardoned after the government decided she had been brainwashed by the North.

'I deserved the death penalty for what I did, but I believe my life was spared because I was the only witness to this terror perpetrated by North Korea,' she told the ABC.

'As the only witness, it is my destiny to testify about the truth.'

To this day, she said, she has no idea what happened to her family - but she says she must not hide the truth from the family members of those who died in the plane bombing.

Primed: Japan mobilised its tropps as it was claimed by U.S. and South Korean sources that at least one previously untested missile with a 3,000km (2,000-mile) range is fuelled and ready for launch Her comments came as South Korea raised its alert levels to 'vital' today, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the Korean peninsula may be slipping out of control. The U.S. and South Korea believe dictator Kim Jong Un may test fire a nuclear-capable missile with a 3,000km (2,000-mile) range at any time and without issuing a standard notice to commercial aviation and maritime shipping so they can avoid the area. South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se told parliament the launch could take place 'anytime from now on' and warned Pyongyang it could trigger a fresh round of UN sanctions, according to the Herald Sun . The Obama administration believes North Korea will likely test one of its mobile ballistic missiles imminently after the most recent intelligence showed Pyongyang had probably completed its launch preparations. South Korean soldiers keep watch on North Korea through binoculars from an observation post near the border village of Panmunjom But a U.S. official said there was no guarantee North Korea would give any warning of its launch to civilians. 'We hope they issue a notification, but at this point we don't expect it. We are working on the assumption they won't,' the unnamed official told CNN . UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Rome that he had spoken to the Chinese leadership to try to calm tensions, and would discuss the issue with US President Barack Obama tomorrow.

'The current level of tension is very dangerous, a small incident caused by miscalculation or misjudgement may create an uncontrollable situation,' Ban said. Business as usual: A North Korean man drives a small tractor in central Pyongyang In anticipation, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces have raised their alert level to Watchcon 2 - a vital threat - to increase surveillance monitoring, Yonhap news agency quoted a senior military official as saying. Watchcon 4 is in effect during normal peacetime, while Watchcon 3 reflects indications of an important threat. Watchcon 1 is used in wartime. Yesterday, North Korea warned all foreigners to evacuate South Korea yesterday because the two countries are on the verge of a nuclear war - as Japan set up a huge new anti-missile system in Tokyo. In a further sign of rising nuclear tensions, a key border crossing between North Korea and China has been closed to tourist groups, a Chinese official said today.

Leave, now: Foreign tourists pose for a picture in Seoul. North Korea urged foreigners in South Korea to evacuate An official at the Dandong Border Office, who declined to give his name, told AFP: 'Travel agencies are not allowed to take tourist groups to go there, since the North Korean government is now asking foreign people to leave. As far as I know, business people can enter and leave North Korea freely.' A woman surnamed Wu at a travel agency in the town said municipal authorities told it not to take tours into North Korea. 'It was absolutely North Korea's (decision) because the travel bureau told us "North Korea is now no longer allowing tour groups to be taken in",' the woman told 9 News World. 'WE'RE STILL GOING': TOUR OPERATORS SAY NORTH KOREA TRIPS WILL PROCEED AS PLANNED

Western tour operators 'Koryo Tours' and 'Young Pioneer Tours' both said today that there were no plans to cancel any of their forthcoming tours, making it unclear if the suspension applied to everyone.

Meanwhile the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to say that travel to North Korea remains unaffected by the latest tensions.

It said: 'Our overall assessment is that there is currently no immediate increased risk or danger to those living in or travelling to the DPRK as a result of these statements.'

Dandong-based Explore North Korea published a notification last night telling customers that all tours to the DPRK would be cancelled until further notice. Following a nearly two hour long meeting with North Korean tour officials, the Chinese company, which normally brings western visitors to North Korea, posted an advisory adding that tours would only be resumed once official confirmation was provided by North Korea, reports NK News. Leonid Petrov, a researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra, told NK News that the move showed a 'logical' and 'consistent' approach to escalating a feeling of crisis on the peninsula. He said: 'War zones are incompatible with joint industrial parks, travel groups or even with foreign embassies. Pyongyang wants to convince the world that Korea will soon be engulfed in the flames of nuclear inferno. 'The scary truth is that this can really happen regardless of who makes the first shot. China is North Korea's sole major ally and the provider of the vast majority of its trade and aid, with most of the business passing through Dandong.' The rising tensions come just days before the April 15 birthday of North Korea's founder, historically a time when it seeks to draw the world's attention with dramatic displays of military power.

Mobilising: South Korean soldiers ride a military truck on the road leading to North Korea at a military checkpoint in the border city of Paju

Threat level raised: A South Korean military vehicle drives past barricades on the road leading to North Korea, which is expecting to launch a missile 'at any time' On standby: South Korean soldiers ride a military truck on the road leading to North Korea as the co-ordinated military surveillance status was upgraded





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