Won Jeong-hwa

In this Korean name, the family name is Won.

Won Jeong-hwa
Born	1974 (age 50–51) North Korea
Known for	Espionage
Korean name
Hangul	원정화
Hanja	元正花
Revised Romanization	Won Jeong-hwa
McCune–Reischauer	Wŏn Chŏnghwa

Won Jeong-hwa (born 1974) is a North Korean who was accused by South Korea of spying for the North and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a court in Suwon on October 15, 2008.^[1]

Won first travelled from North Korea to South Korea in 2001, claiming to be a defector. The charges against Won included the seduction of military officers to gain intelligence, involvement in plots to murder intelligence agents and kidnap South Korean businessmen, and attempting to determine the location of defectors. The North Korean government claimed the allegations were fabricated to tarnish North Korea's reputation.^[1]

Won attempted suicide in prison on December 23, 2008.^[2] Following her release in 2013, some South Korean reporters and North Korean defectors claimed that she had not been involved with most of the plots of which she was accused, but was rather a low-level informant providing photos of military installations as well as newspaper clippings to her home country. Won herself claimed to have been pressured by prosecutors to inflate her own claims of espionage.^[3]

References

1. N Korea 'sex spy' jailed in South BBC News
2. (in Japanese) 北の女スパイが自殺未遂　拘置所で Archived 2009-02-10 at the Wayback Machine Sankei Shinbun 2008.12.25
3. Korea, Associated Press in Gunpo, South (2014-07-11). "North Korea's 'Mata Hari' left out in the cold". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-08-07.