A spy who embodied contradictions never seen before in any agent or operative. She was a North Korean girl, deeply indoctrinated with Pyongyang’s dictatorial ideologies, with her hands stained with the blood of 115 people she coldly murdered.
Yet today, she is a loving mother, a respectable woman, and a good citizen in South Korea—after Seoul forgave her crime, pardoned her, and even granted her citizenship.
However, today’s righteous South Korean citizen has not forgiven the North Korean girl she once was, who planted a bomb on a South Korean civilian airplane in 1987, just before the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
That former spy, Kim Hyon-hui, who began her life as a teenage actress, still, at nearly 60 years old, sees the ghosts of her victims haunting her everywhere.
Here is the story of the world’s most extraordinary spy.
The Actress Turned Spy
On January 27, 1962, Kim Hyon-hui was born in Pyongyang to a diplomat father. As a child, she moved with her family to Cuba, where her father worked at the North Korean embassy in Havana.
Her academic excellence drew the attention of embassy staff, and her name even appeared in intelligence reports sent back to Pyongyang.
Upon her return to North Korea, she discovered that many things had been prearranged for her, including studying acting alongside her regular education.
At the time, she had no idea that this was not due to her talents, but rather part of a comprehensive plan by North Korean intelligence to recruit her as a spy.
Her first surprise came when she was asked to star in North Korea’s first color film, playing the role of a girl who fled with her family from South Korea to the North—supporting Pyongyang’s propaganda that South Koreans lived in poverty while Northerners enjoyed prosperity under dictator Kim Il-sung.
After graduating high school with honors, she enrolled in Pyongyang’s Institute of Foreign Languages to study Japanese.
In her second year, she was explicitly told she had been recruited by North Korea’s spy agency. She was summoned by a high-ranking military officer and met a member of the ruling party.
She immediately entered intensive training and was given a new identity. She was sent abroad using a fake passport under the name “Mayumi Hachiya,” and perfected her Japanese in Tokyo, having studied with Yaeko Taguchi—one of several Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea.
She was later sent to China to study Chinese, and then to Europe as part of her preparation for her major mission.
Throughout all these years, daily intensive Taekwondo training was a central part of her regime.
The Disaster of Flight 858
In 1987, she was personally assigned a mission by Pyongyang’s intelligence director: to blow up Korean Air Flight KAL 858 to create chaos and prevent the upcoming Olympic Games in Seoul.
According to Kim, the operation orders were handwritten by Kim Jong-il himself (father of current leader Kim Jong-un and son of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung). She was told that if the mission succeeded, she could return and live with her family, free from further obligations.
A few weeks before the operation, Kim and another agent traveled through Europe, pretending to be Japanese tourists. In Belgrade, they met two other agents and Kim received a time bomb disguised as a Panasonic portable radio.
She then flew to Baghdad and boarded the Korean Air plane, successfully planting the bomb in an overhead compartment and disembarking during a layover in Dubai.
Hours later, the plane exploded over the Andaman Sea in North Korea’s attempt to sabotage the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Onboard were dozens of South Korean energy workers returning home from the Middle East to visit their families. They, along with the entire crew, perished in the blast.
Kim attempted to return to Pyongyang using a convoluted route but was finally arrested at Bahrain airport after raising suspicions.
She and her partner tried to commit suicide using poisoned cigarettes. The other agent died instantly, but Kim was stopped before she could swallow the poison.
She awoke handcuffed to a hospital bed.
From Death Sentence to Pardon
Initially, Kim claimed she was Chinese and gave the name “Pai Chui Hui,” but her poor Chinese accent exposed her. She eventually confessed to being North Korean.
She was then extradited to Seoul under heavy security.
In December 1987, TV broadcasts showed Kim arriving in South Korea in shackles, her mouth covered with a device to prevent her from biting her tongue and committing suicide.
She believed she was going to die soon, and soothed herself by singing revolutionary songs praising North Korean leaders.
But weeks later, everything changed.
At first, she refused to cooperate, but the South Korean authorities took her on a tour of Seoul. She saw a life vastly different from what North Korean propaganda had taught her.
Realizing she had been lied to and manipulated, Kim began cooperating fully with investigators. She even testified about the bombing before the United Nations Security Council.
In 1989, a South Korean judge sentenced her to death.
But the following year, a stunning twist occurred.
President Roh Tae-woo pardoned her, recognizing that she had been a brainwashed tool used by North Korean authorities.
Public outrage in Seoul was quelled after a tearful press conference in which Kim apologized for the bombing. She later wrote a memoir titled “The Tears of My Soul” and donated its proceeds to the families of the Flight 858 victims.
Today’s Life
Today, approaching her 60s, Kim wears glasses, has short hair, and lives under police protection in a suburb of South Korea’s third-largest city.
She married one of the investigators involved in her case and had two children with him.
She regularly attends church services and takes hiking trips to seek peace, hoping to forget the girl who once committed a terrible bombing.
Yet, Kim still insists that the souls of those who died on Flight 858 continue to haunt her to this day.
