My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 478

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Let’s look at this person’s record first.”

Park Do-joon picked up the programmer’s record.

“Sang Am-doo. Age 35, occupation programmer, annual salary of 89 million won.”

“That’s all information we already know.”

“That’s right. But his taxi fare is usually paid more than three days a week.”

Moreover, a lot of the taxi fare is spent after work. If you exclude overtime or things like that, he took a taxi almost every day.

“The problem is the cost.”

There is almost no record of taxi fare from his house to the company. The taxi fare from his house to the office would be at least 40,000 won [approximately $30 USD]. The research center is in a remote location, so there’s no other way to get there.

“But look at this cost. There are continuous payment records of 70,000 won [approximately $50 USD] or 20,000 won [approximately $15 USD].”

“That’s true.”

Because the cost fluctuated so much, even the NIS [National Intelligence Service] passed it over without much thought.

“But this means they were moving towards the same goal.”

“The same goal?”

“Yes, it would be more accurate to say the same destination.”

Park Do-joon manipulated his phone to turn on the map. And using the route finder, he specified a place where the taxi fare from Sang Am-doo’s house would be approximately 20,000 won.

“It’s probably here.”

A nightlife district in a large city. It is an area with many high-end bars and restaurants, and almost the only concentrated cultural facilities around.

“If you were to go from the research center to here, it would cost about 70,000 won.”

Because surcharges like out-of-city rates are added. So, he went to this place more than three days a week.

“Isn’t he just going there to relieve stress?”

“That’s why it doesn’t make sense. He took a taxi all the way there, but he didn’t do anything.”

These days, most people pay with cards.

There aren’t many people who carry that much cash around.

“But there’s almost nothing [in terms of cash withdrawals]. At most, he buys something at a convenience store.”

“So?”

“Then who is spending money here?”

“……!”

At those words, Yoo In-hye realized. Someone has to spend money.

“And there are also records of spending around 70,000 or 80,000 won [approximately $50-60 USD] during commuting hours. That means he spent the night there and went to work.”

Park Do-joon said that and smiled. Then, leaning back in his chair, he said leisurely.

“Now, here’s the question. What is the most common method of recruitment used by China?”

“Honey trap…….”

The most common methods used by China are honey traps and recruitment through financial support.

“There are many motels in the entertainment district. Someone has to spend money.”

Sang Am-doo clearly went there and didn’t spend money.

“But he might have been trying to meet someone else? Like a girlfriend…….”

“In Korea, men usually spend money on women.”

In Korea, you get cursed out just for suggesting splitting the bill with a woman. But in a place like Korea, you’re making the woman pay?

“Moreover, if he spent the night there, he would have gone to a motel or hotel, and you’re saying he made the woman pay for that too?”

It would be understandable if the man was a poor student who couldn’t earn money, and the woman was from a wealthy family.

“But Sang Am-doo is a person who earns a decent amount.”

In other words, that possibility disappears.

“But why a taxi…….”

“The Chinese spy organization must have used their brains in their own way.”

“If you use a card, your movements can be tracked. So, in order to prevent tracking of his movements, they wouldn’t have brought him or taken him there themselves. There must be quite a few CCTVs [closed-circuit televisions] around Sang Am-doo.”

“But you can’t drink alcohol and drive.”

In the end, you have to take a taxi or something. A designated driver won’t work. Because a witness remains.

“So, they have no choice but to let him take a taxi.”

And in the case of taxis, payment is usually made by card. There are very few people who carry that much money in cash.

“Especially if you use an app.”

Because after registering the card, automatic payment is made from there.

“And frankly speaking, these nerd types are weak against honey traps.”

“Nerds?”

“You know what a nerd is, right?”

The so-called study-only types are called nerds. In Korea, they are called model students, but to put it simply, they can be seen as typical scholars who only know how to study.

“It’s not for nothing that checkered shirts in engineering colleges are called woven condoms.”

It’s not that the clothes are wrong, but it’s because people who only study and don’t know much about the world often wear them. In fact, even among engineering college graduates, many can only dream of entering such a research institute if they are solely focused on studying.

“The reason why checkered shirts have become a symbol of engineering colleges is because parents only buy them checkered shirts.”

And wearing it without any thought means that they are not very interested in decorating themselves or appealing to others.

“As a result, most nerds, or rather model students, are vulnerable to women’s approaches.”

Of course, there is no problem with meeting and marrying through matchmaking or various other methods when it is time to get married. Because they earn that much.

“But that doesn’t mean there is emotional exchange between them. It was the same last time, wasn’t it?”

“Ah, um…….”

Certainly, the person Park Do-joon first analyzed ended up in a marriage that was not based on love but on matchmaking, and even a marriage in which he was dragged along by the other party.

“Honey trap…….”

In fact, one of the most commonly used espionage methods not only in Korea but all over the world is the honey trap.

“Once emotional exchange is complete, they can’t even report it.”

If they believe that the other person loves them, it is not easy to betray the other person’s feelings from that point on.

“Moreover, when using such a honey trap, the first thing they do is a kind of gaslighting that stimulates the other person’s anger and reduces their loyalty.”

As a result, when they realize that the other person is a foreigner, they are already emotionally enslaved and hate their own country.

“And these two people are showing that pattern.”

Programmer Sang Am-doo and researcher Jo Seung-dang. These two are typical model students, the type who have only studied all their lives, as Park Do-joon said.

‘Tsk tsk, this is the problem.’

Because China uses honey traps so often, they should be providing education or countermeasures, or at least warnings about how they approach, but there is no such thing in Korea. As a result, there are quite a few people who are deceived by honey traps and hand over data, or even go to China and get abandoned.

If they educated people on defense methods, it would be easily resolved, but instead of securing that defense method, they don’t tell anyone, and in the end, the work doubles or triples.

Of course, the NIS also has something to say. What if that defense method leaks out?

But logically speaking, would China’s spy organization not know that defense method? They are not the only ones using honey traps in the world?

In the end, it can only be seen as a way to further consolidate their power rather than being genuinely worried about the defense method leaking out.

“But we don’t know who they met.”

“No, we can know. Actually, the Chinese intelligence department is quite good.”

Yoo In-hye frowned at the words that praised the Chinese intelligence department as being skilled, even though she was excitedly criticizing the NIS.

“Are you ignoring the NIS right now?”

“I’m not ignoring it, I’m talking about realistic problems. Has the NIS illegally stolen another country’s national secrets recently?”

“That’s…….”

No. To be precise, even if they do, they try not to make it obvious. Moreover, from the perspective of Korea, which has become a relatively developed country, protecting technology is prioritized over stealing it.

“But China is different.”

China is a country that has grown by stealing technology and uses all sorts of tricks, including hacking, against the whole world.

They even do that very brazenly and don’t even reflect on it.

“There is no choice but to have a difference in skill between an organization that has been using enticement and recruitment for decades and an organization that has only defended.”

Their methods of approaching and disposing of people afterward have also developed tremendously.

“It is said that organizations that are not used degenerate. Information groups degenerate even faster.”

Because technology changes and people change in just 10 years.

“Then we’ll end up just suspecting.”

“Of course. So, we’ll have to leave it to luck.”

“Luck?”

“If we’re lucky, there might still be a place where the data is.”

Park Do-joon said, looking at the card statements.

“If we’re lucky.”

# Sowing Discord Is Also Interrogation

Park Do-joon began to check the card statements of Sang Am-doo and Jo Seung-dang. And while watching that, Yoo In-hye asked as if she was dumbfounded.

“I don’t understand. You said they didn’t spend money?”

“Of course, they won’t later. But you see, they know human psychology well. Especially about Korean men.”

That’s how they can recruit them. How can you recruit someone if you don’t know their tastes or personality?

“Didn’t I tell you? Men usually don’t spend money on women.”

At least not at first. Some people say that splitting the bill is common in foreign countries, but that only applies to partners working in a business setting, not to lovers or those who want to be lovers.

“Didn’t they say that in any American drama? The reason why a man buys a meal is to ask for a favor.”

“Why is that?”

“If a woman approaches by saying she’ll pay from the beginning, the man feels uncomfortable and burdened.”

Conversely, it means that it is natural for men to spend money in the early stages.

“Give and take. That works surprisingly well in Korea.”

To be precise, it’s not about splitting the money in half, but rather a kind of consideration where the man buys the meal and the woman buys the coffee.

“Conversely, it means that Sang Am-doo and Jo Seung-dang would have spent money in the early stages. And they wouldn’t have taken a taxi at that time either. They wouldn’t have approached them from the beginning saying, ‘We are Chinese spies,’ and handed them money.”

“Ah!”

When using a honey trap, they naturally reveal their purpose after completing emotional exchange with the other person. However, before that emotional exchange is complete, they have no choice but to act like ordinary women, and in Korea, it is common for men to spend money on women in the early stages. Of course, that record will remain.

“And we just need to identify the places that appear in common there.”

“Common?”

“Yes, it’s a kind of weakness of information groups? Or should I call it an obsession?”

Information groups tend to try to control the situation no matter what. They simply deploy people and try to control the space itself.

“If two people go to the same place at the same time, that place is bound to be suspicious.”

Yoo In-hye’s eyes widened at those words. She hadn’t even thought of that.

“Maybe I don’t know where that place is, but it’s probably a room.”