23 Facts About Jeong Su-il

Jeong Su-il was a South Korean historian who specialised in Silk Road history and the history of West Asia.

Jeong Su-il was trained as a North Korean spy in the 1970s, and in 1984 he entered South Korea under the identity of "Muhammed Kansu," a Filipino-Lebanese academic.

Jeong Su-il worked in South Korea as a professor until 1996, when his identity and espionage activities were discovered.

Jeong Su-il was released in 2000, received South Korean citizenship in 2005, and continued to work as an academic in South Korea until his death.

Jeong Su-il was born to ethnic Korean parents in Yanbian, Jilin, Manchukuo.

Jeong Su-il's grandfather had come to China during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century.

Jeong Su-il was the third of six children, and the eldest son.

Jeong Su-il always considered himself Korean and studied in ethnic Korean high schools, but he did learn Japanese in elementary school, as it was required in schools by the occupying Japanese forces.

At Peking University, Jeong Su-il was in the Eastern Studies program, which aimed to train diplomats.

Jeong Su-il continued his studies at Cairo University from 1956 to 1958, where he learned English and some German.

Jeong Su-il worked at the Eastern Studies Department of Pyongyang International Relations University from 1964 to 1968, and then taught Arabic at Pyongyang International Language University from 1969 to 1974.

Jeong Su-il continued to stay in touch with and visit his family in Yanbian.

Jeong Su-il was trained as a spy beginning in September 1974, and continued training for five years.

In January 1979, Jeong Su-il adopted the pseudonym Yi Ch'olsu and travelled to Lebanon, acquiring a Lebanese passport later that year.

Jeong Su-il travelled to Tunisia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, and acquired Filipino citizenship in February 1984.

Jeong Su-il enrolled at the Korean Language Institute at Yonsei University, and then at Dankook University in September 1984, becoming "the first international student in their doctoral history program".

Jeong Su-il married a South Korean woman, Yoon Soon-Hee, in 1988, and attended Seoul Central Mosque twice a month.

Jeong Su-il became a respected figure in the city's Muslim community and a household name in South Korea for his writing, columns, and lectures.

Jeong Su-il smuggled information back to North Korea by using hotel fax machines to fax a North Korean agent stationed in Beijing.

Jeong Su-il was arrested in 1996, while using a hotel's business center to send a fax, after a hotel clerk mistakenly identified him as a drug dealer.

Jeong Su-il was charged with "espionage and 'abetting the enemy'" and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1997.

Jeong Su-il embarked on dozens of journeys along the Silk Road to study the cultural exchange.

In contrast to some Silk Road scholars, Jeong Su-il suggested that the route's northern-most point was Gyeongju, Silla, rather than Xi'an, China.