Choe Deok-geun was a South Korean consular official

South Korean diplomatic missions

This is a list of diplomatic missions of South Korea. In the 1980s the Roh Tae-woo government gradually initiated diplomatic links with the Soviet bloc, in a policy known as Nordpolitik, leading to the opening of representative offices and later embassies in socialist regimes in Europe and Asia...

 for the Russian Far East

Russian Far East

Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...

 who was assassinated by poison

Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....

 in October 1996.

Assassination

Though the official cause of Choe's death was listed as bludgeoning, he had two pencil-sized holes on his torso which suggested injection of a foreign substance into his body. When his corpse was discovered, he still had $1,200 cash in his pocket. It emerged soon after that he had poison in his bloodstream of the same type as that carried by a North Korean submarine which had infiltrated South Korean waters and landed

1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident

The 1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident occurred on September 18, 1996, near the South Korean town of Gangneung. The incident was one of the more serious instances of North Korean espionage involving naval forces....

 near Gangneung

Gangneung

Gangneung is a city in Gangwon-do, on the east coast of South Korea. It has a population of 229,869 . Gangneung is the economic centre of the Yeongdong region of eastern Gangwon Province. Gangneung has many tourist attractions, like Jeongdongjin, one of the most famous towns in Korea...

, Gangwon the previous month; North Korea had threatened to retaliate for the killings of their special forces agents by the South Korean army

Republic of Korea Army

The Republic of Korea Army is the largest of the military branches of the South Korean armed forces with 520,000 members as of 2010...

. North Korea denied all involvement and accused the South of fabricating evidence in order to frame the North. Some news reports at the time suggested that the North Koreans had employed a Russian Mafia

Russian Mafia

The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....

 hitman to actually carry out the murder.

Aftermath

As a result of his death, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (South Korea)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in charge of diplomacy for South Korea, as well as handling external trade and matters related to overseas Korean nationals. It was established on 17 July 1948. Until 1998, the ministry was known as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; its jurisdiction over...

 allegedly instructed their personnel to refrain from contacting with or providing assistance to North Koreans in Russia

North Koreans in Russia

North Koreans in Russia consist mainly of three groups: international students, guest workers, and defectors and refugees. A 2006 study by Kyung Hee University estimated their total population at roughly 10,000....

, even refugees

North Korean defectors

A number of individuals have defected from North Korea. Since the division of Korea after World War II and the end of the Korean War , many people have defected from North Korea, mainly for political, ideological, religious and economic reasons...

, for fear that they too could be murdered. Some analysts believe that the North Korean government chose to delay announcing their 24 August arrest and detention of American citizen Evan Hunziker

Evan Hunziker

Evan Carl Hunziker was the first American civilian to be arrested on espionage charges by North Korea since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. He was taken into custody by North Korean police after swimming from China across the Yalu River drunk and naked...

until around the time of Choe's murder in an attempt to divert attention.