'Legendary Double Agent' Joji Beulleikeu Dead at 98 Years Old

George Blake, who acted as a double agent for the Soviet Union during the Cold War era.
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] George Blake, the legendary double agent who shocked the Western bloc multiple times during the Cold War era, has died at the age of 98. He was a figure closely connected to the history of the Korean Peninsula, having been captured as a prisoner of war by North Korean forces during the Korean War and later defecting to communism.

A spokesperson for Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), announced Blake's death on the 26th (local time) via the Russian news agency TASS.

Blake served as the head of the espionage network in East Germany for the British foreign intelligence agency MI6, but in reality, he was a Soviet agent who handed over the identities of about 400 MI6 spies to the Soviet Union. He also leaked information about the "Berlin Tunnel Operation," in which Britain and the United States installed military eavesdropping devices in an underground tunnel leading to East Berlin. The Soviet Union used this information as a tool to feed disinformation to the Western bloc for over a year. Through this, Blake, along with other double agents like Kim Philby of the "Cambridge Five," dealt a significant blow to the intelligence activities of Britain and other Western countries.

Eventually, in 1961, Blake was exposed as a Soviet spy, sentenced to 42 years in prison, and incarcerated. In retaliation, the Soviet Union is known to have arrested or killed some of the MI6 agents whose information Blake had passed on.

However, in 1966, Blake escaped from prison with the help of fellow inmates and successfully fled to the Soviet Union. Thereafter, he was treated as a national hero and lived peacefully, receiving a pension as a former KGB lieutenant colonel in both the Soviet Union and later Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin highly praised his contributions and awarded Blake a medal in 2007. Sergey Ivanov, SVR spokesperson, announced Blake's death on the same day, saying, "He truly loved our country."

Meanwhile, it is known that Blake's decision to become a double agent for the Soviet Union was greatly influenced by the Korean War. In 1948, he came to Seoul with the title of vice consul at the British Embassy in Korea and worked as a spy gathering intelligence on the Far East region, including North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union.

However, when the Korean War broke out, he was captured by North Korean People's Army along with other diplomats and was taken from Pyongyang to the Yalu River for three years. During this time, Blake is said to have read Marx's Capital extensively and witnessed U.S. bombings, leading him to believe that fighting against communism was wrong and to defect.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.