Due to be sentenced in January
A Santa Monica man accused of illegally gathering classified information for the North Korean government switched his plea on Thursday from innocent to guilty.
As part of a plea bargain that prompted the change, John Joungwoong Yai, 59, is expected to serve little or no jail time. United States District Judge George H. King is scheduled to sentence him Jan. 26.
“We were prepared to try the case, but on balance it seemed like the right decision,” said Bill Genego, Yai’s defense lawyer.
The maximum punishment for Yai is 25 years in federal prison. Under the plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Goodman agreed he wouldn’t ask for more than two years and Genego agreed not to ask for a sentence of less than one year.
But because he already served three months in jail before he was ordered freed on $400,000 bond, Yai may only be ordered to serve time in a halfway house or under home confinement, Genego said.
Yai, who until recently owned the snack shop Bon Appetit at 18th Street and Wilshire Boulevard, pleaded guilty to a total of four federal felony charges.
The first is failing to register as an agent of North Korea, as required by U.S. law. Yai allegedly gathered classified information for the North Korean government between 1997 and 2000 and recruited other agents to meet with officials abroad.
“Yai maintained contact with his North Korean handlers through facsimiles, e-mail messages and personal overseas meetings,” said U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek in a statement. “The communications sent between Yai and his North Korean contacts were written with word substitution codes to conceal the true content of the communications.”
The three other charges against Yai are failing to declare more than $10,000 in cash he brought into the country in April of 2000, making a false statement to LAX customs officials about the cash and making additional false statements to officials in August while trying to recover the money. A separate charge related to the money was dropped under the plea agreement.
Yai and his wife, Susan Youngja Yai, traveled to the Czech Republic and Vienna to meet with a North Korean representative in 2000, according to a 76-page affidavit written by FBI special agent James G. Chang. But after landing in LAX via Zurich, Switzerland, Yai and his spouse declared they were not carrying more than $10,000. A search revealed that they were carrying $18,179, officials said.
The Yais told customs officials they had taken the money with them to buy jewelry for their children, but decided to bring it back because the prices and selection were not as good in Switzerland as they’d hoped. The FBI then produced taped telephone conversations between the Yais that allegedly detailed a string of conversations aimed at fabricating their story.
Susan Yai pleaded guilty this summer to failing to declare the $18,179 that the couple brought into the U.S. In September, Judge King sentenced Susan Yai to one year of probation and ordered her to pay a $500 fine.
The eight-year investigation of the Yais, whose daughter is a schoolteacher in east L.A. and son is studying law on the east coast, came to a conclusion in February when the FBI arrested John Yai at his former home at 909 Grant St. in the Ocean Park neighborhood. Genego said the Yais have since moved to a new location in L.A.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 24, 2003. Read the original PDF.