Five North Korean agents with KCTU ties are described

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions protest in front of Seoul Station on Friday. [YONHAP]

The intelligence agency and police are reported to have identified five suspected North Korean agents that made contact with top officials at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

According to a report by the JoongAng Ilbo based on information provided by the National Intelligence Service on Friday, the individuals suspected to be North Korean agents are named Ri Kwang-jin, Bae Seong-ryong, Kim Il-jin, Jeon Ji-sun and an unnamed person in his or her 40s.

Ri, is in his mid-60s and is reported to have infiltrated South Korea several times since the 1990s.

Ri is believed to have been heavily involved with four South Koreans arrested in 2021on charges of violating the National Security Act by working for North Korea for over two decades.

According to the NIS, the North Korean agents had influence over four members at the top of the KCTU, including a vice chairman of the union’s Kia Motor office.

Among the four is the owner of a “peace shelter,” a café on Jeju Island that commemorates the victims of the Sewol passenger ferry sinking in 2014.

He was a high-ranking official of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union at Posco.

The four members of the KCTU were reported to have met the North Korean agents between 2017 and 2019 in places such as Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as well as Hanoi, Vietnam.

The NIS is looking into whether KCTU demonstrations were planned by the North Korean agents.

The KCTU has denied allegations of being involved in espionage and charged that the National Security Act is a relic of the past that should be abolished.

“[The investigation into the KCTU] is an attempt by President Yoon Suk Yeol to hide the discontent of the people ahead of the holidays,” said Yang Kyeung-soo, KCTU president, during a press conference Friday. “[The government] is trying to paint the KCTU as a North Korean sympathizer.”

BY KIM MIN-JOONG, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]