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All stories are culled with consent from Korea JoongAng Daily’s website and edited by Groove Korea for length and clarity. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Groove Korea. — Ed. N A T i o N A l N E w swith April 2014 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com KorEAN-ChiNEsE mAN iN sp y CAsE ATTEmpTs suiCiDE A 61-year-old Korean-Chinese man, who supposedly cooperated with the country’s top spy agency in an espionage case against a civil servant, attempted suicide after being investigated earlier that day, prosecutors said. The man, a North Korean defector surnamed Kim, reportedly sent a text message to the prosecutors implying he would commit sui- cide. “I am so sorry, and take care. I am sending this because I may not be seeing you again,” the message read. After the prosecutors dispatched personnel to locate him, they found Kim several hours later in a motel room. He was unconscious and bleeding by the bed, apparently having sliced his neck with a small knife. Kim was taken to the hospital and was in the intensive care unit after having had surgery. A four-page suicide note was found at the scene, according to prosecutors, but they re- fused to disclose the details. Authorities also found Korean words, possibly denouncing the National Intelligence Service, scrawled across the wall in blood, though the police asked mo- tel employees to remove it after an on-site in- vestigation. In the espionage case, prosecutors have been working on trying to uncover how the official immigration records of another North Korean defector, who was working as a civil servant in South Korea, were manipulated. Those records were submitted to the court when the defector, Yu Wu-seong, 34, was be- ing tried over allegations of espionage, though they were later found to have been forged. Kim is known to have provided the NIS with one of three falsified documents, and the pros- ecution was looking into whether Kim was in- volved in the actual forgery, as well as whether the NIS was aware of the falsification. In January 2013, the prosecution indicted Yu for spying on behalf of North Korea, a viola- tion of the National Security Law, based on a report by his young er sister, who moved from China to Korea in 2012. Some involved in the case argued that Kim’s suicide attempt is suspicious and could imply guilt. According to authorities, Kim acquired Chinese nationality, an exceptional feat for a North Korean defector, who the Chinese gov- ernment usually regard as illegal immigrants. Kim also worked with the NIS, also atypical. “People usually cut their wrists out of pain or terror, but rarely in their neck,” said a criminal psychology expert who requested anonymity. “The possibility remains that the person may have tried to send a message or that it was done by someone else.” Meanwhile, prosecutors stated they would continue their probe. “Nothing changes even when such variables happen,” said Yun Gab-geun, a prosecutor. “We’ll keep working to find out what really happened.” P olice in Seoul said that they were pursuing a suspect who allegedly killed a 67-year- old man known to have owned assets worth hundreds of billions of won, adding that they had acquired video footage captured by a CCTV camera in the office building where the victim was murdered that shows the suspect’s face. According to a police statement earlier this week, the victim, surnamed Song, was stabbed dozens of times all over his body. He was discovered by his wife after she came to the building to look for him when he didn’t return home at his usual time. The video clip shows a masked suspect fol- lowing the victim into the building, which Song owned and managed, where the two men had a physical altercation, a police officer said. During the scuffle, the suspect apparent- ly took off his mask. Song reportedly owned the building in which his body was found, in addition to a 20-story hotel, a wedding hall and an apartment com- plex. He is also the president of a real estate brokerage firm. Authorities said the victim previous- ly managed properties for a distant rela- tive, a Korean-Japanese man surnamed Lee. With money earned in Japan, Lee bought a 9,900-square-meter property and three build- ings in Jongno and Gangseo districts, in the central and western parts of Seoul, respective- ly. He founded the brokerage firm in 1997. Since 1995, Song had been managing Lee’s properties and assets in Korea. When Lee died in 2002, Song appropriated the firm’s stamp, forging a contract that ap- proved the sale of Lee’s assets — worth about 100 billion won ($93 million) — for just 2 bil- lion won. Shortly after, Son g was investigated on alle- gations of fraud and forgery after the prosecu- tion was notified by Lee’s tenants. During the probe, Lee’s children testified that they had never granted the rights to sell their father’s assets to him. The legal dispute played out for more than a decade, and Song was eventually acquitted of the fraud charges. He was sentenced to eight months in prison with two years probation af- ter being found guilty of forgery. “When I heard the ruling, my blood boiled,” a plaintiff in the case said of the verdict. Authorities are currently trying to find the suspect caught on tape. They believe Song may have been killed by someone who held a grudge against him, particularly in light of the legal dispute over the assets he had attained from Lee. poliCE pursuE suspECT iN KilliNG of wEAlThy mAN www.groovekorea.com / April 2014 30