Reminds me a bit of the Guillaume affair [1], which led to the resignation of the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt after it was discovered that one of Brandt's assistant was spying for the communist East Germany, and Brandt knew of it. The spy Guillaume was sentenced to prison in West Germany, but was later exchanged with East Germany for Western spies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Affair

Considering the current president of South Korea is the daughter of the former dictator (and still speaks positively of the dictatorship), not too surprising.