A man lifted the street-level window and slid in, followed by two others. Ten minutes before, the three had been in their own hotel suite at the Savoy, their base of operations, where each man had dressed in nondescript street clothing. Each man carried a black duffel bag without markings; two handled their bags with respect while the third man, who wore an eyepatch, took no care. He walked to where the homeless had collected broken chairs and torn clothing, placed his bag on an old, wooden school desk, and drew open the zipper.

Pulling a pair of boots from within, Eyepatch handed them to one of the men; a second pair went to the next man, and Eyepatch kept the third.

Working quickly, the men removed their own boots, hid them among a pile of old shoes, and slipped on the new pair. Reaching back into the bag, Eyepatch removed a bottle of spring water before stowing the duffel bag in a dark corner of the room. The bag wasn't empty, but right now they didn't need what was inside.

Soon enough, Eyepatch thought. If all went well, very soon.

Holding the water in his gloved hand, Eyepatch returned to the window, raised it, and looked out.

The alley was clear. He nodded to his companions.

Squeezing through the window, Eyepatch turned and helped the others out with their bags. When they were back in the alley, he opened the plastic bottle and the men drank most of the water; with nearly a quarter of a bottle still remaining, he dropped the container and stepped on it, splashing water everywhere.

Then, with the two bags in hand, the men crossed the dirty alley, making sure they walked through the water as they headed toward Chonggyechonno.

Fifteen minutes before the speeches were to begin, Kwang Ho and Kwang Lee-- K-One and K-Two, as they were known to friends at the government press office-- were making a final test of the sound system.

Tall and slender, K-One stood at the podium, his red blazer a stark contrast against the stately edifice behind him.

Three hundred yards away, behind the grandstand, the tall and large K-Two sat in the sound truck, hunched over a console and snuggled beneath earphones that picked up everything his partner was saying.

K-One stepped before the leftmost of the three microphones.

"There's an extremely fat lady sitting on the top of the grandstand, " he said. "I think the seats may collapse."

K-Two smiled and resisted the urge to put his colleague on loudspeaker. Instead, he pressed a button on the console before him: a red light went on under the microphone, indicating that the microphone was on.

K-One covered it with his left hand and moved to the center microphone.

"Can you imagine what it would be like making love to her?" K-One said. "Her perspiration alone would drown you."

The temptation grew stronger. Instead, K-Two pressed the next button on the console. The red light went on.