A Spy, They Said

Kim Won Kyu, 11, loved the candy which the strange Americans who had come to Korea always seemed to carry. With his father, mother and 19-year-old sister, Kim lived in a thatched mud hut at Chosan, a village two miles south of Panmunjom and only a few hundred yards from the road along which candy-laden U.N. convoys were traveling to the U.N.-Communist liaison point. It was very convenient.

One day last month Kim and an older playmate, not satisfied with their haul of goodies and hoping for more, followed an allied convoy across the Panmunjom bridge. When a Red guard hastened up, the playmate fled but Kim was collared. For 19 days nothing was seen of him. His father informed U.N. officers that the boy had been abducted. The U.N. made representations to the Reds.

Last week three North Koreans brought Kim back to Panmunjom in a jeep and handed him over--although, they said, the eleven-year-old boy was a spy. Except for a runny nose, he was evidently none the worse for his experience. Under the watchful eyes of the North Korean soldiers, Kim recited a little speech, saying that South Koreans had paid him 2,000 won (about 33-c-) to cross the bridge and spy on Communist troop movements. Later, over a snack of hamburger and cookies, he confirmed what U.N. officers had already guessed--that the Reds had told him what to say and had coached him carefully.

Kim had been terrified by his jeep ride and refused flatly to get into another one. So a U.N. party marched him back to the family hut on foot, a half-hour trek along paddy dikes. Cried the overjoyed father: "Thank you a million times!"

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