Kim Hyon-hui

金賢姫　/　不明

American writer

January 27, 1962 (age 64)　・　Kaesong, North Korea

writer
spy

My Take

Kim Hyon-hui is one of the most haunting figures in modern espionage history, and I find her story almost impossible to look away from. She was a highly educated, carefully groomed North Korean operative — trained at Kim Il-sung University and indoctrinated from childhood — who planted a bomb on Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987, killing 115 innocent people. What makes her case genuinely unsettling isn't just the act itself, but what came after: captured in Bahrain, sentenced to death in South Korea, and then pardoned, she eventually wrote memoirs that gave the world a rare insider glimpse into how North Korea manufactures true believers. I don't know how to feel about her — perpetrator, victim of a totalitarian system, or both — and I suspect that unease is exactly the right response.

Overview

Kim Hyon-hui (Korean: 김현희, born 27 January 1962), also known as Okhwa, is a former North Korean agent and mass murderer, responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987, which killed 115 people. She was arrested in Bahrain following the bombing and extradited to South Korea. There she was sentenced to death but later pardoned shortly after being convicted and sentenced.

1. Profile

Name (English): Kim Hyon-hui
Name (Japanese): 金賢姫
Reading: 不明
Born: January 27, 1962 (age 64)
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Aquarius / Tiger
Origin: Kaesong, North Korea
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: writer / spy

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Private
University: Kim Il-sung University

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

6. Links

Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E8%B3%A2%E5%A7%AB