Thirty-one North Korean commandos slipped previous American and South Korean sentries on Jan. 17, 1968, slicing by means of the DMZ fence on a mission to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee. 4 days later, disguised as South Korean troopers and sporting civilian trench coats over their weapons, they reached a police checkpoint 100 meters from the Blue Home in downtown Seoul.
When Jongro police chief Choi Gyushik grew suspicious and drew his pistol, the commandos opened fireplace. The ensuing firefight and eight-day manhunt killed 4 American troopers, 26 South Koreans and 29 of the 31 commandos.
The Chilly Conflict on the Korean Peninsula
Park Chung-hee seized energy in a Could 16, 1961, navy coup. The previous Japanese Imperial Army officer remodeled South Korea’s financial system by means of speedy industrialization, constructing highways, metal mills and shipyards whereas more and more tying the nation to the U.S.
However Park dominated as an authoritarian dictator who suppressed opposition by means of the Korean Central Intelligence Company and cracked down on suspected communists with mass arrests and torture.
On the peak of his energy, Park despatched 50,000 South Korean troops to Vietnam, deployed two ROK divisions alongside the DMZ, and purged suspected leftists from universities. Kim Il Sung considered Park as the primary impediment to Korean unification.
In July 1967, Kim chosen 31 officers from elite Unit 124 to assassinate Park, believing his loss of life would set off political chaos and permit North Korea to overhaul the entire peninsula.
A Violent Interval Alongside the DMZ
The timing of the raid was intentional. In October 1966, Kim Il Sung introduced U.S. forces could be “dispersed to the utmost in all places.” With greater than 485,000 American troops in Vietnam by 1967, North Korea calculated Washington couldn’t retaliate towards any incursions.
Between 1966 and 1969, North Korean forces launched tons of of assaults towards American and South Korean forces within the Korean DMZ Battle. On the time, many individuals referred to it because the Second Korean Conflict.
Within the 2nd Infantry Division’s sector alone, 150 incidents together with ambushes, firefights, and hostage conditions occurred in 1967. Sixteen 2nd ID troops died and 51 have been wounded in these engagements. The ROK Army sustained 115 killed and 243 wounded in the identical sector.
In Could 1967, North Korean operatives planted satchel fees inside a 2nd Infantry Division barracks at evening, killing two Individuals and wounding 16. The escalating violence prompted American commanders to reclassify northern South Korea as a hostile fireplace zone, making troops eligible for fight pay and the Fight Infantryman Badge.
By the tip of the DMZ battle, over 80 Individuals could be useless, in addition to over 200 South Korean troopers.
Two Years of Coaching for One Mission
Unit 124’s all-officer commandos educated for 2 years. Their purpose was to assault the South Korean presidential palace, generally known as the Blue Home, kill Park, and unfold chaos into Seoul.
They spent their closing 15 days in coaching rehearsing on a full-scale Blue Home mockup. Every commando carried 70 kilos of kit together with Soviet PPSh-43 submachine weapons, pistols and grenades.
On Jan. 17 at 11 p.m., they reduce holes within the DMZ fence within the 2nd Infantry Division’s sector. American sentries, extra involved with staying heat in sub-zero temperatures, didn’t detect them. By 2 a.m. on Jan. 18, the commandos had arrange camp within the hills 30 miles north of Seoul.
4 Brothers and a Failed Plan
On Jan. 19 at 2 p.m., 4 brothers from the Woo household have been slicing firewood on Sambong Mountain after they stumbled throughout Unit 124’s camp. One brother seen a commando’s rank insignia was sewn on the wrong way up, that means he was not a ROK soldier.
The commandos rapidly detained the brothers and debated executing them. However the captain made a drastic determination, noting that digging graves within the frozen floor could be troublesome, and a few lacking woodcutters would possibly set off searches by the authorities.
As an alternative, he ordered an hour-long lecture on communism’s virtues and made the brothers signal a doc pledging silence. Then he launched them.
The Woo brothers went on to the police. Unit 124 broke camp instantly and raced towards Seoul, protecting over 10 kilometers per hour. They reached Bibong Mountain by 7 a.m. on Jan. 20. Three South Korean Army battalions had looked for them however arrived too late and located no hint of the commandos. Authorities positioned the capital on heightened alert.
The commandos entered Seoul in small cells on Jan. 20 earlier than regrouping at Seungga-sa Temple. Realizing the elevated safety made their unique plan inconceivable, they become ROK Army uniforms and marched overtly by means of Seoul, posing as troopers getting back from patrol.
At 10 p.m. on Jan. 21, they approached a checkpoint 100 meters from the Blue Home. Police chief Choi Gyushik seen the group and stopped them for questioning. Once they gave evasive solutions, Choi seen their coats and realized they have been probably concealing weapons. He drew his pistol.
A commando shot Choi within the chest and killed him. Unit 124 opened fireplace with submachine weapons and threw grenades at surrounding police. The Capital Garrison Command responded inside minutes, even sending M48 Patton tanks.
After a fast however intense skirmish, the commandos scattered. A civilian bus by accident drove into the crossfire. The commandos fired at it, killing a number of passengers.
Eight Days of Fight
President Park declared a state of emergency at 6 a.m. on Jan. 22, imposing curfews and mobilizing the reserves. The “Massive Hunt” operation arrested over 1,000 suspected communist sympathizers inside two weeks, detaining college students, journalists and labor organizers.
The ROK Army’s sixth Corps deployed hundreds of troops into town. Some troopers captured Kim Shin-jo on Jan. 22 after a house owner reported a suspicious man close to his property. Kim surrendered with out firing his weapon.
American troopers from the 2nd Infantry Division moved to dam escape routes to the north. On Jan. 24, the first Battalion, twenty third Infantry Regiment encountered two commandos close to the DMZ and opened fireplace. The Individuals killed each commandos however misplaced one soldier killed and one wounded. Three different Individuals have been killed in comparable close-range firefights towards the commandos over the next days.
South Korean forces killed many of the remaining commandos over the subsequent week. On Jan. 24, ROK troopers killed 12 commandos close to Seongu-ri. On Jan. 29, they killed six extra, ending the manhunt.
Pak Jae-gyong was the one one to flee again to North Korea. Kim Shin-jo and one other commando have been captured, however the different commando dedicated suicide shortly after.
By the tip of the manhunt, 26 South Koreans had been killed and 66 wounded, together with 24 civilians. 4 Individuals have been useless and several other others wounded. Of the 31 commandos, 29 died or dedicated suicide.
The Raid Turns into an Worldwide Disaster
The raid occurred throughout an awfully tense time. That very same day, North Vietnamese forces started the Siege of Khe Sanh. Two days later, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, taking 82 American sailors hostage. The Tet Offensive had erupted throughout South Vietnam.
President Johnson confronted three crises inside 10 days. With a lot of his troops slowed down in Vietnam and 83 Individuals being held hostage, he declined to retaliate, fearing the beginning of WWIII or the execution of the hostages. He as an alternative urged his cupboard to start negotiations with Kim Il Sung.
The South Koreans felt that the North was actively invading and wanted to be punished. Park was livid that the American refused to react. Johnson despatched $100 million in navy support to placate Seoul.
Regardless of the help package deal, the Korean Central Intelligence Company went forward and shaped Unit 684. This group of 31 commandos was ordered to coach and assassinate Kim Il Sung in a fashion just like the North Korean raid.
Not like North Korea’s elite officers, South Korea recruited petty criminals and unemployed youths, promising them pardons, money funds and authorities jobs. They failed to say this mission was a one-way goal and there could be no extraction whether or not they succeeded or not.
The boys educated on Silmido, an uninhabited island off Incheon measuring lower than one sq. kilometer. For 3 years, they endured brutal coaching in hand-to-hand fight, knife combating, parachuting and assassination strategies. ROK Air Drive particular forces instructors pushed recruits past their limits. Seven males died throughout this time.
By August 1971, inter-Korean relations had improved. Park, dealing with home political challenges, cancelled the mission. On Aug. 20, authorities advised Unit 684 they’d obtain no pardons, funds or jobs. After three years of brutal coaching and loss of life, they’d merely be put again onto the streets.
On Aug. 23, 1971, Unit 684 mutinied. The 24 surviving recruits overpowered the guards, killing 18 personnel. They seized a number of weapons, escaped to the mainland, stole paratrooper uniforms, and hijacked a civilian bus close to Incheon, planning to achieve Seoul’s Nationwide Meeting to show the unlawful mission.
Army forces arrange a roadblock in southwestern Seoul, forcing the bus to crash. After a short standoff, a number of grenades detonated inside. Twenty mutineers died. 4 survivors confronted secret navy tribunals. On March 10, 1972, all 4 have been executed by firing squad. Their households weren’t notified. The federal government even refused to launch the our bodies.
South Korea hid all details about Unit 684 for many years. Solely in 2006 did authorities launch an official report. In 2010, Seoul courts ordered the federal government to pay $231 million to households of 21 Unit 684 members, discovering “the harshness of the coaching violated their primary human rights.”
Two Commandos, Two Totally different Fates
Kim Shin-jo underwent a yr of KCIA interrogation. He was initially embittered by the failure of the mission and lamented the choice to spare the Woo brothers. He refused to be repatriated house.
Throughout his imprisonment, he started receiving letters from Choi Jeong-hwa, a Christian lady. Her letters supplied sort inspiration that was international to his indoctrination, together with human dignity and forgiveness. He initially feared she was a sleeper agent or murderer despatched by Pyongyang to tie up free ends.
He was lastly launched in 1970 and instantly married Choi who impressed him to hunt religion. He was baptized in 1981, confessing, “I got here to kill the president, however God selected to avoid wasting me.”
After turning into ordained as a pastor in 1997, he started serving to North Korean defectors who escaped to the South. North Korean authorities murdered his mother and father in retaliation. Kim died in April 2025 at age 82.
Contrarily, Pak Jae-gyong grew to become a hero in North Korea. The regime promoted him to brigadier normal in 1985, main normal by 1993, and four-star normal by 1997. He grew to become Vice Minister of the Ministry of Individuals’s Armed Forces and served on state funeral committees for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
In 2000 and 2007, North Korea despatched Pak to Seoul as a diplomat to fulfill with the South Korean President. Pak is the one member of Unit 124 nonetheless alive.
President Park Chung-hee survived the 1968 raid solely to be assassinated on Oct. 26, 1979, by Kim Jae-gyu, his personal KCIA director, throughout a dinner at a KCIA secure home.
An Unfinished Conflict
The Korean DMZ Battle represented one small a part of an unfinished battle. By late 1969, Soviet stress and worldwide condemnation pressured Pyongyang to cut back its assaults. Firefights dropped from 236 in 1968 to simply 39 in 1969, whereas lower than 100 confrontational incidents have been reported throughout your entire DMZ that yr.
However the provocations by no means totally stopped. Quite a few incidents occurred all through the remainder of the century. Even within the trendy period, North Korea continues to focus on South Korean forces and civilians.
In March 2010, a North Korean submarine torpedoed the corvette Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. In November 2010, North Korean artillery fired 170 shells at Yeonpyeong Island, killing two marines and two civilians within the first direct artillery bombardment of a South Korean civilian settlement since 1953.
In late 2015, North Korean troopers place landmines close to a South Korean guardhouse, maiming a number of troopers. In January 2024, artillery fireplace close to Yeonpyeong brought about mass evacuations.
Roughly 100 U.S. servicemembers have been killed in hostile actions on the peninsula since 1953, together with the 4 who died in the course of the Blue Home Raid and 31 Individuals killed when North Korea shot down a Navy EC-121 reconnaissance plane in 1969. Over 450 South Koreans have died in these North Korean provocations.
No peace treaty has formally changed the armistice as of 2025.
The twenty first century has seen no American deaths from direct North Korean motion, solely as a result of Pyongyang fears focusing on U.S. forces. Nonetheless, American troops nonetheless guard the DMZ in a continued “battle.” Roughly 28,500 U.S. servicemembers at present serve in South Korea.
Going into the twenty first Century with the peninsula nonetheless technically in a state of battle and recognizing that American and South Korean troops have been killed by direct North Korean assaults, Congress created the Korean Protection Service Medal in 2002.
The medal was created particularly due to incidents just like the Blue Home Raid, which exhibits that U.S. forces in Korea face fixed hazard. Whereas the area is lower-level than lively fight zones equivalent to Syria and Iraq, the KDSM is designated as a marketing campaign medal, qualifying recipients for each VFW and American Legion membership.
A crooked pine tree behind the Blue Home nonetheless exhibits bullet holes from the Jan. 21, 1968, firefight. Officers preserved the tree as a memorial, leaving the injury seen as a reminder that North Korean forces are a relentless hazard to American and South Korean troopers.
Story Continues
