Won Jeong-hwa (born 1974) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

n who was accused by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or Confidentiality, confidential information (Intelligence (information), intelligence). A person who commits espionage on ...

for the North and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a court in

Suwon Suwon (; ) is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population of 1.2 million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan, tho ...

on October 15, 2008.N Korea 'sex spy' jailed in South

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Won first travelled from North Korea to South Korea in 2001, claiming to be a defector. The charges against Won included the seduction of military officers to gain intelligence, involvement in plots to murder intelligence agents and kidnap South Korean businessmen, and attempting to determine the location of defectors. The North Korean government claimed the allegations were fabricated to tarnish North Korea's reputation. Won attempted

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

in prison on December 23, 2008. Following her release in 2013, some South Korean reporters and North Korean defectors claimed that she had not been involved with most of the plots of which she was accused, but was rather a low-level informant providing photos of military installations as well as newspaper clippings to her home country. Won herself claimed to have been pressured by prosecutors to inflate her own claims of espionage.

References

1974 births Living people North Korean spies {{NorthKorea-bio-stub