The real world behind 'Agent Kim Reactivated': trained as 'killing machines,' never told when family died

The lives of North Korea infiltration agents are drawing renewed attention as "Agent Kim Reactivated," a drama series starring So Ji-sub, has become a recent hit.

Ha Tae-jun, 67, chairman of the Special Mission Performers Bereaved Families Association, trained as a North Korea infiltration agent for three years beginning in 1984. In an interview Saturday, he recalled the lives of operatives who were denied even basic legal protection because their very existence was classified.

North Korea infiltration agents were special operatives who carried out covert missions inside North Korea under the command of the military and intelligence agencies during the period of inter-Korean confrontation — capturing or killing enemy combatants and gathering intelligence.

An estimated 13,000 people were dispatched to North Korea from the Korean War through the period before the July 4 South-North Joint Statement of 1972, of whom 7,726 were listed as missing.

Ha said the government mainly recruited people struggling to afford their next meal, promising them lifetime employment and a livelihood — but never disclosing what the work would actually involve.

Taken to isolated training facilities without any notification to their families, the recruits underwent extreme training designed to turn them into "killing machines." Merciless beatings and torture drills were standard.

Under the pretext of conditioning them to endure torture if captured in North Korea, they were beaten in ways that defied imagination — including having a hammer driven into their chests. Some unit members died during this process or were left with permanent disabilities.

Ha said the training "went beyond what any human being should have to endure," adding that surveillance officers never informed agents even when a family member had died.

Life after returning to civilian society was no easier for the agents. Many came back physically and mentally worn out, only to face resentment from their own families.

One story still told among survivors involves an agent whose mother, rushing out at the news that her son had returned after three years, collapsed and died on the spot. Ha said the agents "put their lives on the line, but the state abandoned them."

Their existence came to light only after a court issued a ruling in 2002 recognizing the agents and a special compensation law was enacted in 2004. Yet survivors and bereaved families agree that meaningful restoration of honor and adequate compensation remain insufficient to this day.

Special mission veterans are currently excluded from the regular allowances paid to Korean War veterans and other state-recognized patriots. Their welfare benefits are limited largely to in-kind support such as medical assistance and discounts at veterans' hospitals.

Ha called on the state to treat North Korea infiltration agents with the same level of recognition accorded to independence movement patriots, saying the government "must provide compensation commensurate with their contributions, sacrifices and suffering, and establish the appropriate support policies and recognition they deserve."