Black Venus: The South Korean spy who met Kim Jong-il
In the 1990s, Park Chae-seo posed as a business person looking to film adverts for Southern companies in scenic Northern locations
Seoul — Before meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Southern spy "Black Venus" was told to stay up late, shower and dress neatly. He also hid a micro recorder in his penis. Few spies have ever got as close to the leader of an enemy state — let alone one as reclusive as the isolated North — as Black Venus, real name Park Chae-seo. In the 1990s, he posed as a disgruntled former South Korean military officer turned business person looking to film commercials for Southern companies in scenic Northern locations. Along the way to meeting Kim, he claims to have sold antique ceramics for millions for members of the North’s ruling family, and seen Northern military officials counting huge bribes paid by Southerners in political plots. Now his story has been turned into a book and a film that shine new light on the murky connections — some financial, some political — that run across the demilitarised zone dividing the peninsula. With North and South engaged in a rapid diplomatic rapproche...
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