An extraordinary Soviet secret document has recently surfaced in Germany, shedding light on a fascinating figure buried deep within history’s shadows. Titled “An Alphabetical List of Foreign Intelligence Agency Agents, Traitors to the Homeland, Participants of Anti-Soviet Organizations, Punishment Squad Members, and Other Pursued Criminals,” this 1969 KGB publication, stamped with the ominous “Top Secret” label, lists a surprising name: Cho Myong-gil, a Korean woman whose story is as tragic as it is captivating.
Here is how the document goes:
Cho Myong-gil, also known as Cho Myong-ja, born in 1928 in the town of Seishin, Kankyo-hokudo* Province (Korea), is of Korean ethnicity and a citizen of the DPRK. She is trained as a telephone operator, waitress, sewing machine operator and dancer.
She is of average height, slim build, with horizontal shoulders, black hair and eyes, a round face, a low forehead, arched eyebrows, a small nose with a straight bridge and slightly upturned base, a small mouth with thin lips, small ears, and a small birthmark above her left eyebrow.
Her cohabitant, Vakil Namatovich Gaitov, resides in the village of Slak, Alypyevsky District, Bashkir ASSR.
While living in Genzan** (North Korea), she joined an underground pro-fascist organisation known as the “Korean National Socialist Party.” Acting on its orders, she gathered espionage-related information in the area where Soviet troops were stationed. For this, she was arrested in 1946 and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
While serving her sentence, in 1955, she petitioned to remain in the Soviet Union, citing her planned marriage to a Soviet citizen. She pledged to work after her release at a textile plant in Tashkent or in Zepgiata, a settlement 18 km from Tashkent.
However, after her release on 17 December 1955, she instead travelled to the village of Slak, Bashkir ASSR, to live with her former labour camp cohabitant, Gaitov V. N., a camp guard. In February 1956, she left the Bashkir ASSR and disappeared.
A 1946 photograph is available. She is the subject of a search case with the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Bashkir ASSR. She had previously been declared wanted by the KGB under the USSR Council of Ministers, listed in orientation notice No. 29 of 1967, serial No. 13.
* These are the colonial-era names for Chongjin and North Hamgyong Province.
** This is the colonial-era name of Wonsan.
Born in 1928 in the Korean town of Seishin (now Chongjin), Cho’s journey was set in motion at the age of just 17, as Soviet forces entered the Korean Peninsula in 1945. Under the name Cho Myong-ja – a moniker reminiscent of a Japanese name – the young woman soon became entwined in a web of repression that would span decades. During Korea’s turbulent period of Japanese rule, the colonial regime had aggressively encouraged Koreans to adopt Japanese names, and Cho’s altered identity was likely born from this era.
But it was not only her name that tied her to a fateful destiny. Cho Myong-gil joined the Korean National Socialist Party, an organization founded shortly after World War II. Originally called the “National Party,” this organization soon added “Socialist” to its name – probably to appease the Soviets. This proved to be a fatal misstep – its striking similarity to Nazi Germany’s NSDAP led the Soviets to view it as a “pro-fascist” group. Furthermore, according to the memoirs of Pak Pyong-yop, a high-ranking escapee from North Korea, another reason the authorities grew suspicious of the National Socialist Party at the time was their belief that it was involved in the assassination of Hyon Jun-hyok, a left-wing independent activist, in September 1945. The assassination was allegedly carried out by an organization called the Taedong League. However, upon reviewing the earliest Soviet documents, it becomes clear that the Party and the League were, in fact, separate entities, suggesting that the “National Socialists” were likely not involved in the assassination.
Nevertheless, the hunt for party members began. In 1946, Cho was arrested by Soviet forces, marking the beginning of her long ordeal. Imprisoned in a Soviet labour camp, she became an anomaly within Stalin’s regime, forming a rare and improbable bond with a camp guard, Vakil Gaitov. Their relationship – one defying the strictures of a time when such connections were unthinkable – would shape the next chapter of Cho’s life.
Upon her release in December 1955, Cho was expected to settle in the Soviet Union, with promises of employment in a textile plant. But fate had other plans. Instead of abiding by the agreement, Cho vanished, fleeing to the village of Slak, Bashkir ASSR, to join Gaitov. Together, they disappeared, slipping through the cracks of KGB surveillance, successfully evading the grip of Soviet authorities.
The last known trace of Cho Myong-gil was in February 1956, the same month when Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin. While the Soviet Union began to release political prisoners soon after, Cho remained a wanted fugitive, hounded by the KGB’s manhunt as late as 1969. The tragic irony of her story lies in the fact that her life was ultimately consumed by the silly name of the party she once joined – its false association with Nazism marking her for a lifetime of surveillance and suffering.
Her fate, though, remains shrouded in mystery. Vakil Gaitov, too, disappears from the historical record, leaving no trace of their final moments together. Though some of his relatives are recorded, both Vakil and Myong-gil is conspicuously absent from any family records. It appears that, despite their best efforts, the KGB never located the couple.
Cho Myong-gil’s life reads like a cruel game – her love, her defiance and her ultimate tragedy intertwined in a dark dance of survival. Her story is not merely one of loss and oppression but also of love’s unbreakable resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. She found solace and strength in the most unlikely of places, and though her fate was tragic, her tale is one that reminds us of the enduring power of the human spirit.
March 14, 2025 at 11:53AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)