Kim Hyon Hui

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Kim Hyun Hui (Hangul: 김현희 aka "Ok Hwa") (b. January 27, 1962, Kaesong) was one of the North Korean agents responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987.

Her father was in the Department of Foreign Affairs and as a result, the family lived in Cuba for a time. Kim excelled as a student and after school activities. In college, she studied Japanese. This later proved to be a fateful decision for Kim and led to her selection as an agent for the North Korean Communist Party.

Once selected to become an agent for the Party, Kim was given a new name Ok Hwa and sent to live in a compound outside of Pyongyang. There, Kim was trained in martial arts, physical fitness, and Japanese for three years. Her language instructor was a Japanese woman using the Korean name Eun Hae who had been apparently kidnapped from Japan. Additionally, students at this facility were shown propaganda films and indoctrinated regarding North Korean communism. At the end of her training, Kim was rigorously tested. Part of her final exam required her to infiltrate and steal documents from a mock embassy.

Kim spent time in China studying Chinese and was allowed to travel through Europe with an older gentleman, known to her as Kim Sung Il. This was part of her extensive preparation to complete a mission that was of great importance to the ruling Kim family. Kim Hyun Hui only wanted to live with her family from whom she had been separated throughout her training. Her younger brother had died and her sister, who had married, was now a widow.

Kim was given an assignment to blow up Korean Airlines 858 and was told that the order came directly from the "Dear Leader himself, Kim Jong-Il." Kim was told that the mission was very important and that its successful completion would result in the re-unification of Korea. Additionally, Kim was told that she would be able to return and live with her family and would not have to work as an agent afterward. She was once again paired with Kim Seung Il who was recovering from an operation to his stomach.

She was traveling with a false Japanese passport under the name of Mayumi Hachiya along with Kim Sung Il, who posed as her father. The two traveled through Europe and eventually met up with other North Korean agents in Budapest who provided them with the materials to complete their mission. Once they had left the bomb behind (hidden in a radio device) in a luggage rack of KAL 858, Kim Hyun Hui and Kim Sung Il deplaned in Abu Dhabi and traveled to Bahrain. The two agents were apprehended in Bahrain after word got out that their passports were fake. Kim Sung Il bit a cyanide pill that was hidden in a cigarette and died. Kim Hyun Hui attempted to do the same thing but the capsule didn’t kill her. She was hospitalized and then later interrogated.

At first, she insisted that her name was Pai Chui Hui, an orphan from Northern China who had met an elderly Japanese man with whom she was traveling. When asked about her sexual relations with the older man, Kim Hyun Hui became angry and attacked her interrogator and fought with the guard. Her accent also did not sound like she came from northern China. Just as she was about to shoot herself with the guard’s weapon she was subdued. Kim Hyun Hui was then transferred to South Korean custody.

During her interrogation in South Korea, Kim Hyun Hui’s resistance broke down quickly. Kim was taken to see the prosperity of Seoul outside of her prison cell. She had been taught in North Korea that American culture had supplanted the Korean culture in the South. She had also been taught that the rich exploited the poor who lived in poverty. What she saw outside of her prison cell made her realize that everything that she had been taught regarding South Korea was mere propaganda. Once she came to this realization, Kim Hyun Hui confessed the details of her role in the bombing of Flight 858.

For her role in the bombing of KAL 858, Kim Hyun Hui was sentenced to death in March 1989 but was later pardoned by South Korea's president, Roh Tae-woo. She later wrote her autobiography entitled "Tears of My Soul" and donated the proceeds to the families of the victims of Flight 858. Kim Hyun Hui lives in an undisclosed location and is always in fear of being assassinated as revenge for her act, although she is somewhat popular among some South Korean men who have been drawn to her physical beauty from public appearances.