JAKARTA - On November 29, 1987, Korean Air Flight 858 exploded while flying over the Andaman Sea. 115 people died instantly. They consisted of 104 passengers and 11 crew members. Korean Air Flight 858 is an international airline between Baghdad, Iraq and Seoul, South Korea (South Korea).
The plane exploded in mid-air due to a bomb planted above the passenger cabin of the plane. The bomb was planted by two North Korean agents (North Korea). The agents, acting on orders from the North Korean government, planted the device before disembarking the plane during its first transit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. As the plane was flying over the Andaman Sea for a second transit in Bangkok, Thailand, a bomb exploded and destroyed the plane.
Two days later, two suspicious names appeared, namely Shinichi Hachiya and Mayumi Hachiya. Both names held Japanese passports, indicating they were father and son. They boarded Korean Air Flight 858 on the day of the crash and disembarked during the first transit in Abu Dhabi.
It wasn't long before the Japanese Embassy in Abu Dhabi learned that both passports were fake. When officers managed to track down the two suspects, they were at Bahrain International Airport. They were almost on a plane to Rome, Italy.
Both were stopped at the departure gate. Hours after questioning, both suspects attempted suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule hidden in a cigarette. They were then sent to the hospital and one of the perpetrators, a man, died. Another person, who was a woman, did not bite the cyanide capsule. The woman was immediately questioned by officers from Japan and Bahrain.
In the weeks that followed, the South Korean government strongly urged that the woman and other pieces of evidence be extradited to South Korea. They claimed it was a South Korean plane and that nearly all of the victims on board were South Korean nationals. On December 15, 1987, the female suspect, the deceased male suspect, and other evidence were handed over to South Korea. On her way to Gimpo International Airport, South Korea, the woman whose real name was Kim Hyun-hui was guarded by six security agents, her mouth was plastered so she wouldn't commit suicide.
Kim Hyun-hui had highly trained spy skills, especially in interrogation. During interrogation, he went on a hunger strike first and only spoke Japanese and Chinese. To hide his identity, he claimed to be born in Heilongjiang, China, with the name Yucui Bai. His childhood was haunted by poverty and unrest. He told the story and then moved to Japan and was adopted by Shinichi Hachiya. On the seventh day after arriving in South Korea, Kim Hyun-hui confessed that he carried out the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858.
"When I confessed, I did it reluctantly. I thought my family in North Korea would be in danger; confessing was a very big decision. But I realized that confession would be the right thing to do for the victims, to understand the truth," he said. Kim Hyun-hui
Citing History of Yesterday, receiving the bombing order, Kim Hyun-hui lived in Macau for more than a year to study Mandarin and Cantonese. He flew to Pyongyang to meet his partner, then took a communist oath or ritual. The two travel through a series of cities around the world to erase their tracks: Moscow, Budapest, Vienna, Belgrade, Baghdad, Abu Dhabi, and finally Bahrain.
They received the bomb while in Belgrade, then boarded Korean Air Flight 858 from Saddam International Airport, Baghdad. 20 minutes before boarding, Kim Hyun-hui's partner took out the time bomb embedded in the radio. He pretended to play with the radio and set the bombing time to 9 hours later. They put the bomb in the passenger cabin and left the plane at Abu Dhabi airport without taking it with them.
Terrorizing Olympic participantsAt the time of the bombing, South Korea was preparing to host the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il are determined to stop him.
"I was told by a senior officer that before the Seoul Olympics we will bring down a South Korean plane," Kim Hyun-hui said in a BBC interview.
"He said it would create chaos and confusion in South Korea. The mission would deal a crushing blow to the revolution," he added.
The South Korean government held a press conference on January 15, 1988. Kim Hyon-hui gave a 15-minute speech, explaining the details of the plot, which was conceived and instructed by Kim Jong-il to blow up the plane. The goal was to scare countries away from attending the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In 1989, a South Korean court sentenced Kim Hyun-hui to death. But then South Korean President Roe Tae-Woo pardoned him for considering Kim Hyun-hui a victim of North Korean brainwashing. He was released in 1992, living a secret life under the protection of the South Korean government. Kim Hyun-hui later married a South Korean intelligence officer and had two children.
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