Female Spies and Poison Darts -- N.Korea's Cloak-and-Dagger History
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North Korea has a long history of using female operatives, not just as honey traps but also as fanatical assassins who often prove tougher than men.
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One was Won Jeong-hwa, an agent who came to South Korea posing as a defector and was arrested in July of 2008, having wheedled military secrets out of a number of officials here.
She Came From a good family and was chosen to join the elite Socialist Youth League and later joined a special commando unit to be trained as a secret agent. There she learned to use lethal weapons like poison-tipped needles, trained in martial arts and mountain warfare, and received ideological indoctrination.
Once in South Korea, Won approached senior military officers and stole sensitive information.
Female agents apparently undergo the same tough training as their male counterparts, mastering Taekwondo to a high level and practicing endurance swimming. They are also trained in assassination and abduction skills and the use of explosives.
In the 1970s, female agents were widely used in the North's bizarre campaign to adapt Japanese and other foreign nationals.
And the only surviving bomber who blew up a Korean Air passenger plane in 1987 was a female agent, Kim Hyon-hui.
More recently, North Korea has been using attractive women to carry out operations in cyberspace, where they open Facebook accounts posing as staff of fictitious companies to steal sensitive data from South Koreans.