Unmasking hidden history
Part 2: Fateful Liaisons: Truths, myths and Miss Kim
Kim Soo-im was infamously known as “The Korean Seductress Who Betrayed America,” a label given to her by the U.S. magazine Coronet. A Seoul socialite, she was accused of charming secret information out of one lover—an American colonel—and passing it to another, a high-ranking communist in North Korea. Just months before the Korean War began, she was executed as a spy by the South Korean military. However, an AP investigation more than 50 years later revealed that she was falsely accused, detailing how she was heartlessly betrayed by the American colonel who had fathered her child.
My Role: Multimedia Producer, Designer, Translator, Transcriber, Video/Photo Editor, and Narrator.
After the first part was published, I brought a new lead to the writer, Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Hanley: the story of a woman potentially framed and executed just before the Korean War. The AP team in Seoul and New York collaborated to uncover the tragic liaison between Kim Soo-Im and Col. John E. Baird
Key Outcome:
The Truth Revealed: Our reporting confirmed that Ms. Kim was falsely accused. In a dramatic twist, we discovered her former lover was actually an undercover spy for the U.S., not North Korea.
The Victim’s Son Found in the USA: During the investigation, we found Ms. Kim’s son, who had been adopted by a Korean family and became a theology professor in California. He was finally able to share his pride in his biological mother’s story.
Research and Collaboration
