Kim Hyon-hui
Kim Hyon-hui (Korean: 김현희, born 27 January 1962), also known as Okhwa, is a former North Korean agent, responsible for the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing in 1987, which killed 115 people. She was arrested in Bahrain following the bombing and extradited to South Korea. There she was sentenced to death but later pardoned.
Kim Hyon-hui | |
|---|---|
Kim Hyon-hui in 2010 | |
| Born | 27 January 1962 Kaesong, Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Nationality | North Korean (defected) |
| Other names | Kim Okhwa, Mayumi Hachiya |
| Known for | Bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 |
| Notable work | The Tears of My Soul |
| Criminal status | Pardoned |
| Children | 2 |
| Conviction(s) | Murder (115 counts) |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Date | 29 November 1987 |
| Killed | 115 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 김현희 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Hyeonhui |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Hyŏnhŭi |
| Japanese cover name | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mayumi Hachiya | |||||
| Kanji | 蜂谷 真由美 | ||||
| |||||
North Korea denies that Kim was born in the North, and regards her entire biography to be a fabrication of the South. Some districts in Japan fund North Korean-run schools which falsely claimed that Kim was a South Korean agent. According to Kim's testimony, she was taught Japanese in connection to her mission by Yaeko Taguchi, one of at least 13 Japanese abducted by North Korea.
In recent years, Kim has publicly expressed regret about the bombing and she has provided information about the state of affairs in North Korea as well as the possible state of abductees.