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Current Affairs

South Korean ex-spy reveals toll of secret missions to North: ‘treated as expendable’

In 1984, Ha Tae-jun, then 24, spotted a notice recruiting for a special unit at the Military Manpower Administration office in central Seoul’s Yongsan district….

By Samantha Johnson / August 27, 2026

In 1984, Ha Tae-jun, then 24, spotted a notice recruiting for a special unit at the Military Manpower Administration office in central Seoul’s Yongsan district. The notice was scrawled on the wall in marker, with little explanation.

Ha applied, and his life was changed forever – training as a South Korean operative for covert missions into North Korea.

“About a month after submitting background check documents, they said I’d passed and told me to meet at a cafe near my house,” said Ha, now 66 and president of the Association of Bereaved Families of Special Mission Agents.

At the time, he had no idea it would be three years before he saw home again.

Cadets undergo officer evaluation training at the Korea Army Cadet Military School in Goesan county, North Chungcheong province, in May 2012. Photo Korea Times
Cadets undergo officer evaluation training at the Korea Army Cadet Military School in Goesan county, North Chungcheong province, in May 2012. Photo Korea Times

Taken to a safe house on Mount Cheonggye in Seongnam, Gyeonggi province, he passed a fitness test and got into a car, believing it would take him home.

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