Spy Nation Unveils Making of a North Korean Spy.
North Korea spy submarine stranded on the South's shores
The documentary Spy Nationdepicts South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) 2013 counterespionage fraud involving North Korean defector Woo-sung Yu. Awaiting his cinematic debut on October 13, 2016, Seung-ho Choi, the director of Spy Nation, held a screening in Jeju on September 11, followed by a conversation with the audience.
The South Korean government established the NIS in 1961 to catch North Korean spies. Since its creation, the NIS has secured convictions in around 100 cases of espionage, but the Truth and Reconciliation Commission retried many cases after discovering that they were based on forged evidence.
Yu also fell victim victim to the fabricated charges. Ethnically Chinesebut born in North Korea, Yu defected to the south in 2004. Yu posed as a northerner to obtain citizenship and benefits from the government. In 2013, NIS accused him of spying for North Korea based on confessions from his sister, Ga-ryeo Yu. However, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission discovered that NIS detained her without access to legal representation for 179 days to extract these confessions.
After the court ruled that charges against Yu were based on insufficient evidence, the NIS fabricated records that showed Yu entering North Korea on multiple occasions and found a man to give false testimony supporting this. However, the fraud came to light, and some mid-ranking NIS officials admitted to ordering it.
Spy Nation brings this issue before the public once more. During the conversation with the audience at the Jeju screening, Choi expressed the reason behind the documentary production, saying, “In order to transform the NIS, I believed that we needed a new medium. I decided on a movie.” According to Ilyoseoul News, Choi also said that “none of the NIS members who had coerced false confession from Yu had been held responsible.”
More screenings will take place from September 20 to 30 throughout South Korea before the official premiere on October 13. It remains to be seen whether Spy Nation will receive enough attention to prompt a popular demand for accountability and reform in the NIS.