Black Venus, the South Korean spy who met Kim Jong-il and lived to tell about it
Park Chae-seo would do anything to gather information on the enemy North – including hiding a micro recorder in his penis. His story will shock people on both sides of the DMZ
Before meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, South Korean 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 Korea – as Black Venus, real name Park Chae-seo.
In the 1990s he posed as a disgruntled former South Korean military officer turned businessman 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 rapprochement, The Spy Gone North has been an instant bestseller and box office hit, the film attracting five million viewers in just its first three weeks on release, about 10 per cent of the South’s entire population.
