A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There are nearly 35,000 defectors from North Korea living in South Korea. Many of them rely on a secretive network of brokers to check on their families back home or to send them money when their families really need it. A broker's job has been dangerous and difficult as North Korea tightened its border control, but now another threat has emerged, this time in South Korea. Here's NPR's Se Eun Gong.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Laughter, speaking Korean).
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
SE EUN GONG, BYLINE: Over the sound of the TV and a dog's bark, a middle-aged woman is quietly counting a bundle of cash in a phone video. This video is proof of delivery filmed by an unnamed courier.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JU SU-YUN: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED COURIER: (Non-English language spoken).
GONG: Ju Su-yun's phone is filled with videos like this. She and her husband, Hwang Ji-sung broker these kinds of deliveries from their home in Hanam, a town just outside Seoul. They are both from North Korea. Since their arrival in South Korea in 2009, the couple has been wiring fellow defectors money to brokers in China. That money is typically handed to another broker inside North Korea and then to a courier who hand-deliver it to the defector's family.
SU-YUN: (Through interpreter) People caught delivering money from South Korea are punished heavily. In worst cases, they can be sent to a political prison.
GONG: But Ju and Hwang didn't expect they could come under threat for their role in South Korea until one day in April 2023. As Ju was coming home, a group of police officers from an anti-espionage unit approached her.
SU-YUN: (Through interpreter) I was so stunned, I couldn't remember the code for my digital door lock. So I rang the bell.
GONG: They had a search warrant accusing Ju of violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act because she transferred funds overseas on behalf of someone else. But it was more than a financial crime the police were after. In their request for the warrant, police argued the couple's collaborators in the North could be working for or benefiting the North Korean regime and endangering South Korea's national security.
SU-YUN: (Through interpreter) I had never imagined, even in my dream, that I would be accused of being a spy in this country.
GONG: Ju and two other brokers were indicted last year for the alleged foreign exchange violation, which can be punished with up to three years in prison or $215,000 in fine. Here's Ju's lawyer, Kim Myung-chul.
KIM MYUNG-CHUL: (Through interpreter) They couldn't charge her for breaking the national security laws, and this was the only violation they could indict her with.
GONG: The police that investigated Ju told NPR that the brokers' cases were routine investigations. The National Spy Agency did not respond to NPR's phone calls for comment. Last year, the same year Ju was indicted, the government designated a day for North Korean defectors. At the inaugural ceremony, then-President Yoon Suk Yeol made a speech.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
YOON SUK YEOL: (Speaking Korean).
GONG: "The happiness defectors enjoy living here is the marker of what country South Korea is," he said. But Ju and her husband, Hwang, say they aren't sure about that. Here's Hwang.
HWANG JI-SUNG: (Through interpreter) We defectors are like fish in a tank. We are trapped in this country. They turn to us whenever they need to catch spies.
GONG: The ruling for Ju's trial is expected in October.
Se Eun Gong, NPR News, Hanam, South Korea.
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