Agents work in isolation and the surveillance never stops, a former agent trained to infiltrate North Korea reveals
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenThe Korea TimesPublished: 9:46am, 27 Aug 2026In 1984, Ha Tae-jun, then 24, spotted a notice recruiting for a special unit at the Military Manpower Administration office in central Seoul’s Yongsan district. The notice was scrawled on the wall in marker, with little explanation.
“About a month after submitting background check documents, they said I’d passed and told me to meet at a cafe near my house,” said Ha, now 66 and president of the Association of Bereaved Families of Special Mission Agents.
At the time, he had no idea it would be three years before he saw home again.
Taken to a safe house on Mount Cheonggye in Seongnam, Gyeonggi province, he passed a fitness test and got into a car, believing it would take him home.
