Former N.K. terrorist visits highest defector in Seoul: ex-lawmaker

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- A former North Korean spy who blew up a South Korean
airplane in 1987 has visited Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of North Korea's
Workers' Party, in Seoul in their first encounter in more than a decade, a former
lawmaker said Monday.

Kim Hyon-hui and Hwang had a meeting in Hwang's office in southern Seoul on
Saturday, the former intelligence official-turned lawmaker Lee Dong-bok said in
an article on a right-wing Web site, www.chogabje.com.
Lee did not say why the former spy proposed meeting with Hwang or what they
discussed, except that they exchanged greetings and agreed to "work together."
The article, however, was quickly deleted, and Lee explained over the telephone
that Kim did not want to draw public attention to the meeting.
Hwang, the highest-ranking North Korean defector to come to the South, first met
with the former terror agent in 1997, the year he arrived in Seoul. Kim was
sentenced to death in 1990 for implementing the fatal bombing, but was later
pardoned and married a former intelligence official.
Lee said Hwang, 86, is in "good health."
Kim returned to the limelight in March when she held an emotional meeting with
the family of a Japanese woman, Yaeko Taguchi, who was kidnapped by North Korea
three decades ago.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)