EastSouthWestNorth: Daily Brief Comments, March 1-31, 2011

March 23, 2011: Several South Korean diplomats stationed in the Chinese city of Shanghai are under investigation for their relationships (sexual and otherwise) with a Chinese woman who acted as a fixer for diplomats seeking access to Chinese officials. The woman, only identified as Deng, was most useful in helping obtain visas for North Korean refugees seeking to get to South Korea. Such "fixers" are common in China, and most foreigners are very dependent on them. The Chinese government wants it that way.

That can be seen from the fact that Deng was caught, by the South Koreans, with classified South Korean documents. She apparently got them from one of the South Korean diplomats at the Shanghai consulate. Deng was also believed to have had sexual affairs with several South Korean diplomats. At one point, she was apparently screwing two of them, without either of the South Koreans knowing the Deng was playing both of them.

(Asia Weekly/Yazhou Zhoukan)

On March 8, a number of South Korean media outlets including Chosin Ilbo and others broke upon a major Chinese spy story: A Chinese woman had tricked three South Korean diplomats stationed in Shanghai. This occurred during the period of the Two Congresses in China and the South Korean reporters abandoned their original assignment to chase after the spy story in Shanghai.

Combing through the various South Korean news reports, this is a case of "seduction by a female spy as plotted by the Chinese intelligence agency." The female Chinese "spy" is a 33-year-old Chinese national named Deng. The case was revealed by her 37-year-old husband known only by his initial J who is a South Korean national working in Shanghai for a South Korean company. J and Deng have been married for ten years, and they have one daughter. According to J, in late 2010, he learned from friends about the marital infidelities of his wife. J also found his wife was behaving mysteriously. So he secretly examined her computer and found that she was in possession of a series of South Korean "national secrets."

Based upon the information in Deng's computer, J said that his wife had "unusual" relations with three South Korean diplomats at the Shanghai consulate. There was an "intimately close" photo with a diplomat from the Legal Affairs Department, a "letter of promise" from someone who knows someone in the Economic Affairs Department and the photo of another diplomat. According to South Korean news reporters, Deng had these South Korean diplomats "under her thumb." These diplomats were "seduced by this woman who has beauty, wealth and political connections" and fell into "a love trap." Among the "major secrets" were South Korean government personnel information, the visa logs at the Shanghai consulate, and two hundred telephone numbers for senior government officials (including the mobile phone numbers of the President's wife and brother). The media said that "such information is out of reach to ordinary people."

There are multiple photos of Deng with the Shanghai South Korean consul named Kim stored on her computer. In one photo, Kim had his arm on Deng's shoulder. In another photo, Kim sat "close" to Deng on a sofa. According to information, one of these photos was dated at 6:30pm on one evening and the photo carrying the telephone numbers was taken at 8:30pm on that same evening. Kim also has a copy of that telephone numbers list on his personal USB storage device.

The South Korean media gave Deng a background appropriate for a "007 Bond" girl: She moved to Beijing three or four years ago; someone had spotted her in the Zhongnanhai compound; she staged a traffic incident in order to approach the diplomat in the Legal Affairs Department of the South Korean Shanghai Consulate; she claimed to have been the senior secretary in the Shanghai city government; she claimed to have worked for the Public Security Bureau; some South Koreans in Shanghai said that she has relatives who are senior government officials and she exploited those connections for economic gains. When the South Korean Consulate asked for a meeting of their ambassador with the city mayor/party secretary, no reply was given for two months; Deng was asked to intercede and a meeting was quickly scheduled. As to this last allegation, the South Korean Embassy said that their ambassador has never ever met with the Shanghai city mayor or party secretary.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry investigated and handled the matter. The results were not publicly announced. However, it is known that the three diplomats were sent home due to "family health reasons," "inability to adjust to living in Shanghai," etc. The diplomat in the Legal Affairs Department broke certain job rules because of his relationship with Deng and has resigned.

The investigation found no evidence that Deng was a Chinese spy. She was a middleperson looking to make some money. She approached the South Korean diplomats mainly in order to know South Korean business people. She had once been a high-paying consultant for a South Korean company. Furthermore, those telephone numbers were not "state secrets." The two other diplomats at the Shanghai consulate insisted that they were innocent -- they said that they did not have improper relationships with Deng and they did not pass any state secrets along. The South Korean Shanghai consul Kim said that the photos were taken when he encountered Deng by chance at the Shanghai Hilton or at the meeting with the French Consul. As for the list of telephone numbers, the time/date stamp showed that the photo was taken while the consulate was holding a reception on the South Korean National Day for several hundred guests and there was no way that Kim would have time to let Deng take photos. As for the visa logs, the South Korean Shanghai consulate processes 170,000 to 180,000 visas each year, far beyond the ability of their staff of ten to handle and therefore some of the work is out-sourced. That visa log may have been leaked through other ways.

Because this investigation is incomplete since Deng was unavailable, the South Korean public is skeptical about the results. Some people think that this incident showed that their foreign ministry has loose discipline, serious problems and chaotic administration.

Meanwhile a Chinese scholar thinks that the much of the South Korean reporting on this so-called spy case is unfounded and mutually contradictory. In the published details so far, there are more speculations than facts. The hype over this case serves to smear China but it does not benefit South Korea in any way whatsoever. Over the years, the American and Japanese media have hyped up similar Chinese spy cases, so now South Korean is joining the circus. It goes to show that Sino-South Korean relationship is also evolving in the face of the "China Threat" meme."