Chapter 8 Chapter 5

Between the time I was selected as a special agent and before the bombing of Flight 858, they assigned me two missions to test whether I had the ability to be an international spy. By July 1984, I was proficient in armed or unarmed combat.One morning, Agent Zhong came looking for me in that black Mercedes.It was a Sunday, and I happened to have a rest, reading the twenty-sixth volume of "History of Kim Il Sung" in the library.Woo-ji brought Chung-ling to me, and I was so taken aback when I saw him that I almost jumped out of my chair. Comrade Yuhua, he greeted me kindly and held out his hand and said: Nice to see you again, I heard you are doing very well here.

Thanks.I answered and shook his hand. I want you to pack your luggage within fifteen minutes, and he said: Just bring a few clothes, nothing else.Come out and meet me after packing up. Okay, I try to hide my uneasiness and surprise as much as possible.I'll be fine in a while. A few minutes later, we were on the road in the mountains in the Mercedes-Benz.Zhong politely asked about my situation, but didn't say a word about where we were going or why we were going.I was very worried about whether they were going to clear me from the base and exile me somewhere. This is what North Koreans often feel when they are suddenly summoned by party officials.But, despite Chung's lack of expression, he was visibly in a good mood, and I began to wonder if I was under arrest.

When we arrived at intelligence headquarters, he took me to meet a department chief named Kwong, a tall, young man with premature baldness who wore sunglasses even though he was indoors.Also sitting in his office was a short, elderly man with white hair and a wrinkled face.They stood up as soon as we entered, and the old man seemed to have some difficulty when he got up. Chief Kwong introduced me as Kim Soon-il.Yuhua, one of the most outstanding agents in the history of the Foreign Intelligence Department, you have to treat him like your own grandfather, and you have spent a long time together.

After we were all seated, Kuang began to explain the purpose of summoning us.Mr. Jin, Miss Jin, you two are going abroad next month.Yuhua, for you, this time is mainly to accumulate actual combat experience.You will be going to many cities in Europe and Asia this time, and I want you to go from one country to another for an internship under a disguised identity.It's time for you to get in touch with the culture of other countries. I hope you will take some careful notes while you are abroad.This is also an excellent opportunity to practice and prove that you are capable of some top-secret tasks in the future.

You will pretend to be a Japanese father and daughter traveling abroad.You two are fluent in Japanese, and your status as a tourist will be the best cover for your trip to Europe.You will go to Moscow, Budapest, Vienna, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva, Paris, Macau, Guangzhou and Beijing.In communist countries, you use passports from the North Korean embassy; in Western countries, you use Japanese passports with the names Shinichi Mineya and Mayumi Mineya.Shinichi's identity is the deputy general manager of Ohoi Transportation Company, and Mayumi's identity is a graduate of Yaoyama Women's University with a degree in domestic economics.We will give you a detailed personal file information.Let me talk about the main content first.

Yuhua, the last part of the trip abroad will be completed by you alone.When leaving Europe for China, Shunyi will not be with you anymore. He has to stay in Europe for an extra day and fly to Seoul after completing his mission.You travel to China alone.This is partly because it serves as a distraction in case anyone notices the two of you, and partly because it tests your ability to handle the situation on your own. After listening to his words, I became more and more excited.After so many years of training that seemed endless, I was finally sent into battle!How many secret agents at the Jingshan base had to wait ten to fifteen years before receiving their first mission, but I only waited four years.Needless to say, I was also very worried about this at the time.They put so much trust in me and I feel a great responsibility.My only experience abroad was living in Cuba, yet the vast majority of North Koreans have never been abroad.The various details of this itinerary include going to the airport, staying in a hotel, and exchanging banknotes. I will not deal with it, not to mention that we are still illegally entering Western countries as an enemy spy.

During the few weeks when I was preparing to go abroad, I spent a lot of time reading Japanese fashion magazines and watching Japanese movies in order to make my clothes, makeup, and behavior look like a Japanese woman as much as possible.I also read many international travel guides.With this information, I feel a little more confident and sophisticated.I thought I would make a great agent, like those legendary KSC and North Korean agents we've seen in movies.My heart is full of pride.While many girls my age aspire to be housewives, I was traveling the world with no idea how different my feelings would be in the years to come.

The impression of traveling in Europe during this trip is a bit blurred now.What impression did I get when I saw a capitalist country for the first time?Those cities are clean and well-equipped.Everything there took me by surprise.Of course, what impressed me the most was the wide variety of products in the store.Even though I'm new to luxury items such as jewelry, I'm amazed at the variety of food there!That's a lot! However, to be honest, I still kept in my mind at that time my education and its conception: European cities are decadent, low-class and vulgar.What disgusts me even more is that in Copenhagen and Paris, there are shops selling pornographic goods and prostitutes roaming the streets.In Switzerland, I also saw mink fur coats, Dana luxury cars, diamond earrings and so on.My twenty-two years of education taught me that everything in the West is evil.Therefore, I also see this new world with this kind of eyes.

Another thing that prevents me from appreciating these cities is our disguised identities.I felt both fresh and perplexed by this trip abroad, and sometimes even fearful.In my heart, I always want to make myself look more like a Japanese tourist, in line with the identity I want to dress up.Even though Shunichi and I visited the main tourist spots in these cities, which is some necessary cover, I couldn't help but feel uneasy when I saw the police, especially when there were many Japanese tourists, and some of them wanted to chat with us , I was even more panicked.Therefore, throughout the whole trip, there was a lot of tension in my heart.

Still, I am impressed by the beauty of Europe, especially Switzerland, which is simply beautiful.I fell in love with the Alps the first time I saw them.Our hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva was as picturesque as a postcard.I still remember that we met a group of Indian tourists near the hotel. They touched the snow with their hands curiously, as if they had never seen snow before. They gave us a fee of ten thousand dollars.When returning to North Korea, I have to bring some gifts for the minister and other superiors.I know that this has become a custom among foreign agents, who themselves feel that it is an honor to travel abroad.Those small gifts such as ballpoint pens and lighters are just daily necessities. They are nothing in the eyes of Westerners, but they are very rare in North Korea.Strictly speaking, we can't spend money on ourselves unless it's required to perform a mission.But Mr. Jin bought himself an expensive gold-plated watch.In North Korea, watches are valuable items, and owning one is a sign of respect.Kim later told me it was one of the best purchases his family thought he had made.

In Geneva, I once wanted to buy a statue of a mermaid, but it was nude, and I knew I couldn't bring it back to Pyongyang.So I bought a necklace with a gold-plated cross at the end.I didn't mean to buy it, but when Jinshun saw me wearing it, even though he didn't say a word, he couldn't help but glared at me.But the interesting thing is: after returning to China, Chief Kuang also praised me. He thought that doing so would make my disguise more perfect.I certainly didn't say I bought it purely out of personal preference. I must admit that, if I still had the air of a spy in me, it had dissipated quite a bit after arriving in Switzerland.The scenery here is as beautiful as a fairy tale world, I just linger on it. Mr. King and I are going to part ways in Paris and go our separate ways.We spent a few days together as tourists.Some things I saw in Paris impressed me more. Women dressed in fashion, women in their forties dressed as boldly as girls in their thirties.I also really admire the grand old buildings.But when I was walking on the road, a motorcyclist who passed me snatched my wallet, and all my joy was wiped out.Especially when we took a taxi later, because we didn't know the market, we were cheated out of one hundred dollars by the driver, which was even more frustrating. During the whole trip, Jin Shunyi was completely a gentleman.Although we shared a room in a hotel, he never did anything wrong to me, not even a hint.Before I set off, I was a little worried, and I made up my mind that if he showed any disrespect, I would use the martial arts I had learned to beat him to death.Although Shun Yi is an old spy, but he is old, I can definitely deal with him.But contrary to my fears, he treated me like my own father.The first time I performed a mission, I was accompanied by such an excellent and experienced old spy.When my disguise was wrong and I acted panicked, I felt very relieved to have him in time to help.He has been to Europe many times and has a full self-confidence born of accumulated experience. Although our superiors have instructed us not to inquire about each other's backgrounds, it is impossible not to talk about personal matters at all.I know that Kim Soon-il was married and his children have all grown up.He had been in the Intelligence Service for a long, long time, in many missions, all over the world, including the United States.In his life of fighting for the cause of communism, although he may have killed people, I can feel that under his fragile and old appearance, he has a kind heart.He is about sixty-eight or nine years old and suffers from chronic stomach problems.After getting along for a while, I feel that our concern for each other goes beyond professional needs.I feel like we love each other like family. When I left Paris, Kim sent me to Charles de Gaulle Airport to catch a flight to Macau.Although I was worried about going alone, I tried my best not to show it. I didn't want the words I was crying to appear in the report Jin wrote to his superiors after returning home. Please be careful, Yuhua.He said when we got to the checkpoint.He can no longer send me.Agent Zhong will pick you up in Macau and arrange for you to go to Guangzhou.Tell him I will see him on September 26th. All the best, Shunichi.I answered and hugged him.Will we meet again? He smiled.It's time for me to retire, he said: "But I hope we can meet again. We met later, of course, but on a far more dire mission. It was only a few years later that I found out that after we broke up with me, Kim Soon-il almost failed to escape once in South Korea.In the first few minutes of the meeting, his affair with the person in Seoul was exposed.His link, who was being hunted by South Korean secret agents and police, managed to get to a beauty salon and shot himself before being arrested.Shun Yi immediately set off to flee Seoul.As soon as he escaped, the authorities blocked all roads and exits from the city.Apparently South Korean authorities have spotted him.This incident caused an uproar in Pyongyang, and people wondered whether there were enemy spies inside the Ministry of Intelligence. But I was in Macau at that time, just doing my own job, and I didn't know anything about it.Agent Zhong picked me up at the airport, and he spent a few days with me touring the island.He said that if all goes well, I will be sent to Macau again so that I can fully familiarize myself with the local conditions.Like Hong Kong, Macau is a capitalist colony filled with gambling establishments and expensive hotels.But here is Asia, and I don't have the same strange feeling as in Europe. The real personal adventure began after Zhong sent me to Guangzhou.For the next week I was really alone. Fortunately, I didn't feel as strange in China as I feared. After all, it is a neighbor of North Korea and a communist country at the same time.I have watched with curiosity the lives of ordinary people, and found them to be far better off than North Koreans, and I have been inspired and dismayed at the same time.It looks like North Korea is the worst country in the world.At least the stores in China are well stocked and the restaurants are cheap and the service is good. After staying in Guangzhou for two days, I came to Beijing.It's a populous city, and the main form of transportation is bicycles, of which there appear to be millions.Here again I observe people's living conditions. Although the living standard is not as high as in Europe, it is still much better than Pyongyang.Food is plentiful and there is a variety of small commodities in the market.I am really ashamed of my country. When I left Beijing, I bought some gifts for officials in Pyongyang at the station's duty-free shop, five boxes of traditional Chinese medicine, two bottles of brandy and a box of pencils.I feel that the country I live in is really a strange country.After returning to China, I will write an evaluation report on this trip to Europe and submit it to my boss, which is the most telling.This kind of report seems absurd today: After going to capitalist countries in Europe, I further confirmed my education and deepened my understanding of these countries.There are only a few people living a life of wealth and luxury, while ordinary civilians live a life of poverty and misery.It's a hell on earth, that's a true fact. In stark contrast to the feasting and debauchery on the street, the people living in the small streets and alleys live a life that is not as good as a cow or a horse. I have seen luxurious hotels, only the pigs and dogs of capitalism can often enjoy them, and what they extract is the blood and sweat of the working people.Even the dogs they feed are dressed better than the working people. It is a true portrayal of the decadent, miserable and hateful capitalist society. I am proud that the people of North Korea can work, live and study together without having to worry about the needs of everyday life.The determination to dedicate oneself to the cause of socialism and to defend the country from the enemy is stronger than ever. It is my great honor to serve the great leader and complete the tasks assigned to me. I am extremely honored to be able to grow up in North Korea. They also asked me to write a report on my performance with Kim Soon-il during the mission.According to the requirements, the agents should monitor each other and carefully observe the surrounding environment. It would be unthinkable if they did not criticize themselves and Jin Shunyi in the report. Needless to say, it is not easy to come up with such words.