Chung Su-il

Jeong Su-il (, also transliterated as Chong Suil; 12 November 1934 – 24 February 2025) was a South Korean historian who specialised in Silk Road history and the history of West Asia.

Raised in China by ethnic Korean parents, Jeong worked as a Chinese diplomat before immigrating to North Korea in the 1960s. He was trained as a North Korean spy in the 1970s, and in 1984 he entered South Korea under the identity of Muhammed Kansu, a Filipino-Lebanese academic. Jeong worked in South Korea as a professor until 1996, when his identity and espionage activities were discovered. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Jeong was released in 2000, received South Korean citizenship in 2005, and continued to work as an academic in South Korea until his death.

Early life in China Jeong Su-il was born to ethnic Korean parents in Yanbian, Jilin, Manchukuo (Japanese-occupied China). His grandfather had come to China during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century. Jeong was the third of six children, and the eldest son.

During his last year in high school, he became one of two ethnic Koreans admitted to Peking University when it opened its entrance exam to all students in 1952. In 1988, he was offered a visiting professorship in Arabic Studies at Dankook, and became South Korea's "sole expert in Arabic Studies". and attended Seoul Central Mosque twice a month. He became a respected figure in the city's Muslim community and a household name in South Korea for his writing, columns, and lectures. In 1991, he wrote an excerpt for a middle school textbook published by the South Korean Ministry of Education. Jeong smuggled information back to North Korea by using hotel fax machines to fax a North Korean agent stationed in Beijing. While in Daegu Hwawon Prison, In 2003, he was offered a teaching position at Korea University, where he taught Islamic culture and medieval history. He received South Korean citizenship in 2005. In 2008, he founded the Korea Institute of Civilisation Exchanges, of which he was president at the time of his death. In 2011, he visited his hometown for the first time in 60 years. In 2022, he published a memoir, People of the times, follow your calling. In contrast to some Silk Road scholars, Jeong suggested that the route's northern-most point was Gyeongju, Silla, rather than Xi'an, China.

Writings two volumes

Translations 이븐 바투타 여행기 1, 2 Translation of The Travels (الرحلة, Rihla) of Ibn Battuta (2001)

Translation of The Eastern Parts of the World Described of Odoric de Pordenone 혜초의 왕오천축국전 (An Account of Travel to the Five Indian Kingdoms (Wang ocheonchukguk jeon) by Hyecho, 2004 Cathay and the Way Thither of Sir Henry Yule