1. Summary of the case

At 9 pm on February 15, 1997, a man arrived at an apartment near Seoul from work. However, when he got off the elevator on 14th floor, two men dressed in black tried to kidnap him. A violent quarrel soon ensued, followed by screams and two gunshots. And these two men disappeared down the stairs.

A woman who lived on the 14th floor was watching everything that happened in the hallway through the intercom. But she was shocked and couldn't do anything. Moments later she went out hallway. The man was shot in the forehead and chest and passed out with the words "spy, spy". He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died 10 days later, on February 25. He was 'Yi Han-yong' who worked as a PD for Russian language broadcasting at KBS World, a Korean broadcasting company. At the time, he was 36 years old.

Right after the incident, the police found cartridge cases for Belgian-made Browning pistol that North Korean agents often use. And in October, it was confirmed that "the assassination of Yi Han-yong was the work of North Korean agents" from the arrested North Korean couple spies.

2. Who is Yi Han-yong?

Yi Han-yong's real name is 'Yi- Il-nam' and he was born in 1960 in Pyongyang. Yi Han-yong originally lived an ordinary life with no direct connection to the Kim family. However, Kim Jong-il's obsession with women changed Yi Han-yong's life.

In 1969, Kim Jong-il, who had a live-in lover in his 20s at the time, wanted Song Hye-rim, a movie star and married woman with a daughter. So he forced Song Hye-rim and her husband to divorce. After that Kim and Song began living together in secret, and in 1971, the eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, was born. Afterwards, he let her older sister Song Hye-rang and nephew live in his mansion, and all of them became like one family. However, in the late 1970s, Kim Jong-il shunned Song Hye-rim and started living with other women. Eventually, Kim Jong-il sent her son, Kim Jong-nam, to Switzerland to study, and kicked Song Hye-rim, her older sister, and nephew out to Moscow.

The nephew of Song Hye-rim who was exiled to Russia is Yi Han-yong. In other words, he is Kim Jong-il's wife's nephew or Kim Jong-nam's cousin.

Later, Yi Han-yong, who lived under North Korean surveillance in Switzerland, decided to defect in 1982. He disguised himself as missing in consultation with South Korean intelligence agency, and finally arrived in South Korea through five countries. Afterwards, he changed his name from Yi Il-nam to Yi Han-yong, entered 'Hanyang University' in Seoul, and in 1987 joined KBS(Korean Broadcasting System) as a PD in the International Department. He also married and had a daughter. However, at the same time, he received assassination threats from North Korea and hid own identity by plastic surgery.


3. Why was Yi Han-yong assassinated?

Yi Han-yong seemed to be settling down well in Korea, running a chocolate shop after leaving KBS. Then, in October 1995, he was contacted by his mother Song Hye-rang in Moscow. It was the first call in 13 years. After a phone call with his mother, whom he thought he would never see, he wanted his whole family to live together. The following month, in November 1995 in Moscow, Song Hye-rang met her brother Song Il-gi, who lived in South Korea, after 50 years.

Afterwards, she decided to escape North Korea's surveillance and defect to meet her son. In order not to provoke North Korea, she planned to seek asylum in a Western country first and go to South Korea a year or two later. In January 1996, Song Hye-rang escaped from Russia with the help of her daughter Yi Nam-ok, who had defected from North Korea in 1992, and succeeded in exile in Switzerland.

In June 1996, Yi Han-yong published a book titled 'Taedonggang Royal Family' after her mother escaped the North Korean regime. In this book, he revealed scandalous personal life of the Kim family in North Korea, including how his aunt, Song Hye-rim, became Kim Jong-il's lover, Kim Jong-il's promiscuous drunkenness and sex life, and how he, his mother, and his aunt were exiled to Russia.

Kim Jong-il ordered the assassination of Yi Han-yong when his hidden life was revealed. In January 1997, Choi Soon-ho and Yoon Dong-cheol, agents of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Culture, which corresponds to Cultural Exchange Bureau, infiltrated South Korea via China using forged passports. And on February 15th, they tried to kidnap Yi Han-yong to North Korea, but when he stubbornly refused, they assassinated Yi with a pistol on the spot. Afterwards, the North Korean assassins rode a submersible through the sea and returned to North Korea.


4. After the Incident

After more than 10 years of waiting, Song Hye-rang received the news of her son's death right before the reunion, and eventually did not come to South Korea. Instead, she traveled to various countries and wrote books about influential North Koreans who were abducted by North Korean authorities to soothe the pain of North-South separated families. Yi Nam-ok, younger sister of Yi Han-yong, who escaped from North Korea in 1992, stayed in England, married a Frenchman, and is known to live in Cambodia.

Yi Han-yong's wife and daughter live a normal life without any special public activities. On the other hand, they are still afraid of the North Korean threat, as they moved quickly after the assassination of Kim Jong-nam in 2017.

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