Picture of the Day: Silmido Funeral

Guards carrying a portrait and the remains of the deceased secret commandos trained to infiltrate North Korea during the Cold War era leave a funeral hall in Goyang, north of Seoul, after their joint funeral on Aug. 23, 2017. Unit 684, better known as the Silmido unit, named after the island off the west coast where it was secretly based, was established in 1968 by the government following North Korea’s failed attempt to attack the presidential office in Seoul earlier that year, but their existence became useless amid the reconciliation between the two Koreas. The existence of the anti-communist unit had been thoroughly denied by the government, and a group of 24 surviving commandos blew themselves up while trying to enter Seoul on a stolen bus. In 2010, the court ordered the state to compensate the bereaved families of the commandos. (Yonhap)