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. 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...