On October 19, 1962, the then-small international airport of Sofia, the capital of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, witnessed a rather unusual scene. About 10 Asian-looking males entered the airport when commotion followed. Two of the males suddenly ran away, dropping their passports to the ground and yelling in good Bulgarian: “down with Kim Il Sung!” The remaining males tried to physically restrain them but to no avail: the two youngsters ran from the airport and disappeared.

This was a major failure of the North Korean spies and diplomats. The North Korean embassy briefly succeeding in abducting the students whose