Category: DMZ

In 1966 North Korea began a campaign to infiltrate increasing amount of communist agents into South Korea along with well trained special operations troops to launch attacks against US and South Korean military forces along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North and Korean War.  The goal of North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung was to infiltrate enough agents within South Korea to cause an insurgency against the ROK government while simultaneously sapping the US and ROK military’s morale and initiative.  He planned to do by launching ambushes on the DMZ which would also test US resolve in Korea due to America’s heavy involvement in Vietnam.  This period of increased conflict became known by those who fought in this shadow war as the “DMZ War“.  The list of military provocations during this period against the Republic of Korea government by their rivals in North Korea is a long and extensive one.  However, one provocation is clearly the most audacious and remarkable by the fact the communist agents nearly accomplished their mission, and that is the Blue House Raid.

Purpose of the Raid

On January 17, 1968, North Korean commandos infiltrated into North Korea with the express purpose of assassinating South Korean president Park Chung-hee.  Not only were they ordered to kill Park Chung-hee but they were to chop his head off and toss it into the streets of Seoul.  The belief Kim Il-sung had was that by launching a decapitation strike against the ROK regime it would cause chaos within the nation that his communist agents in place throughout the country could then take advantage of by launching a guerrilla campaign against the government in the hope of causing a final regime collapse.

The undercover guerrillas would target transportation nodes, TV stations, post offices, police, and military bases in order to cause chaos throughout the country.  The conventional North Korean army could then use the guise of an internal uprising against the South Korean regime to legitimize its invasion of South Korea to reunite the peninsula under his rule.  However, first Kim had to successfully assassinate Park which would be no easy task.

To do this a thirty-one man assassination team was specially selected from the infamous North Korean 124 Army Unit responsible for most of the infiltration and ambushes launched along the DMZ.  These specially selected soldiers trained for two years solely for this operation.  Before beginning their mission the team spent their final 15 days conducting mock raids against a full model of the Blue House set up near the North Korean city of Wonsan where their training base was located.  Once their superiors were satisfied with their level of proficiency they were immediately sent to execute their mission.

The assassination team was divided into six different teams each commanded by a Captain in order to more easily infiltrate into South Korea.  Each team member wore dark overalls, sneakers, a cap, and carried 66 pounds of equipment to include a sub-machine gun, a pistol, grenades, and daggers.

Infiltration

The commando team decided to infiltrate through the 2nd Infantry Division sector near the city of Yeoncheon because it was believed that by infiltrating through the US sector of the DMZ and then successfully assassinating Park Chung-hee that the Korean military would blame the US for the assassination.  This in turn would cause tension between the two allies for North Korea’s communist agents to exploit.  Each of the North Korean teams were able to successfully breach the DMZ fence and landmines without being detected.

Here is what the only commando to survive the attack had to say about the initial infiltration operation:

At 04:00 on January 18, 1968, 31 commandos crossed the border. (The border fence they cut is preserved to this day). They wore South Korean uniforms and were trained in Seoul accents – “This is the basis of guerrilla fighting!” They removed mines as they went. They halted before a South Korean observation post: Women were going in: “They were not very alert!” Covered in white sheets, the assassins crossed the frozen Imjin River.  [Kim Shin-jo]

After successfully crossing the DMZ the six different teams regrouped and began their expected four day march south towards Seoul.  For the first two days the commando team was able to successfully march south undetected.  Their infiltration mission had gone so well that they even camped out one night just a few kilometers from the major US military installation in the western corridor, Camp Howze.

Fatal Mistake

Initially the commandos had been very luck to not be detected, however their luck would change on the late afternoon of January 19th.  On that day the commando team was spotted by four South Korean woodcutters, all brothers working in the mountains.  This was a moment where the North Koreans made a terrible mistake.The North Korean commandos had been long taught that the oppressed masses in South Korea were just waiting to be liberated from their puppet government that was backed by the Yankee Imperialists.  So instead of killing the woodcutters the commandos decided to conduct an indoctrination sessions with them and teach them the wonders of Juche and the on coming communist conquest that would unit the country and free the oppressed South Korean masses that they figured the woodcutters were part of.  It never occurred to them that the South Korean masses were not oppressed and in fact loyal to the ROK government.

To add some context the masses in South Korea were oppressed by the Park Chung-hee regime, but they were no where near as oppressed as the people in North Korea.  Remember many of the Koreans during this time frame had lived through the Japanese colonization of the peninsula and knew what oppression was, Park Chung-hee was nothing compared to what they saw before.  Additionally Park’s economic policies had brought unprecedented economic growth to South Korea and thus causing the average ROK citizen to be quite happy to put up with some oppression if it meant the continued economic growth of the country.  The fact that the commandos were indoctrinated with communist propaganda led to them making a mistake that would ultimately doom their entire operation.

After the indoctrination session the woodcutters proudly pronounced themselves converts to the communist ideology which they were then released by the commandos.  Once they were released they immediately went and notified the South Korean police of what they had saw.  The police notified the South Korean military and a massive counter-guerrilla operation was launched to catch the commandos.  However, the South Korean authorities did not know what the mission of the group was and thus could not focus their operations into one area.  The commandos were so skilled they were able to easily avoid the perimeter checkpoints by moving in two to three man teams before meeting up again on the outskirts of Seoul.

In Seoul security was much tighter and the commandos took off their civilian overalls which exposed the ROK Army uniforms they wore underneath them.  The ROK Army uniforms were perfect replicas and even had the correct unit designation of the 26th ROK Infantry Division sewn on them.  They were a mile from the Blue House and decided the best way to penetrate the city’s security would be to do something no one expected, march right through the city straight to the Blue House.

Final Shootout

The North Koreans posed as a South Korean platoon returning from patrol on the city’s outskirts.  They marched right through the city right by a number of military checkpoints before arriving 800 meters from the Blue House around 10:30 AM on the morning of January 21, 1968.  It is here where the commandos encountered a final police checkpoint  that stopped the marching soldiers to question them.  The North Koreans fumbled their answers to the questions the commander of the Chongno police station Choe Kyu-sik asked them.  Here is how the Chosun Ilbo newspaper described the events that happened next:

But a jeep carrying Jongno Police Station chief Choi Kyu-sik was coming up the road. Choi shouted at the North Korean commandos, “Identify yourselves! What’s inside your coats?” He was taking out a gun to stop them when two city buses came up close and stopped. Mistaking the buses for vehicles that carried police or military reinforcements, the North Korean commandos shot Choi in the chest, tossed hand grenades into the buses, and scattered in every direction.  [Chosun Ilbo]

From there chaos broke out as the North Koreans entered into a massive fire fight against the South Korean security forces.  A platoon of South Korean infantry had been tasked to reinforce the Blue House’s security and they immediately maneuvered to engage the North Korean infiltrators.  It was during this exchange of gun fire that a school bus got caught up in the crossfire killing the women and children aboard.  The ROK security forces were only able to get the North Koreans to abandon their mission to kill Park Chung-hee when ROK Army tanks began to rumble down the road towards the North Koreans.  With no effective way to fight the tanks, the commandos decided to abandon the mission and fight their way back to North Korea.

The operation to track down and kill the North Korean infiltrators would end up being even bloodier then the initial fire fight.  Both US and ROK military units were mobilized to patrol the South Korean country side to find the infiltrators.  More often then not the infiltrators when located would go down in a blaze of gun fire that would claim the lives of even more people.  A few of the operatives committed suicide to avoid being captured.  The most bizarre death was when one North Korean operatives was captured alive and brought into to be questioned by the Korean National Police Director Chae Won-shik.  Unfortunately the police had not bothered to properly disarm the operative who proceeded to pull a pin from a grenade and kill himself and injure the Police Director.  Here is how the January 24th, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes reported the incident:

Overall, the operation to track down the commandos lasted for nine days where 29 of the infiltrators were killed, one unaccounted for, and only one captured.

Corpses of the dead North Korean commandos pictured on Jan. 25, 1968.

Aftermath of the Blue House Raid

The casualties the South Koreans received was steep with 68 South Koreans killed and 66 more wounded.  Most of these casualties came during the operation to hunt down the commandos.  Of these casualties most were military and policemen, but two dozen of them were South Korean civilians.  American forces experienced three soldiers killed and three more wounded in the operation to track down the North Korean operatives.  This article from the New York Times suggests that these US soldiers were not killed by the commandos themselves but by other North Korean operatives on the DMZ while the search was going on.  The January 25th, 1968 edition of the Stars and Stripes likewise published an article about US soldiers combating infiltrators along the DMZ during the time the Blue House Raid operatives were trying to get back to North Korea:

It was later learned that the one unaccounted for commando had in fact successfully made his way back to North Korea and would later become an Army general.  The lone captured commando was a young man by the name of Kim Shin-jo who was on just his second covert mission into South Korea.  Much of the details of the Blue House Raid have come from the testimony of Kim Shin-jo.  Kim’s statement upon capture was, “I came down to cut Park Chung Hee’s throat!” became a well known footnote of the aborted raid.

Today Kim is far less aggressive and in fact became a Protestant pastor in 1997.  Kim received a Presidential pardon for the raid and was released from jail when a forensic investigation determined he never fired a bullet from his weapon.  Besides being a pastor Kim is also a hard line anti-Communist:

“What has really changed while the South has been pouring out so much money on the North?” he said. “North Koreans are only becoming hungrier and hungrier while the unilateral support from the South is extending the North Korean government’s life.”  Kim said he wants to live “as long as possible” so he can serve as living evidence of North Korea’s spy program against the South. Otherwise, “North Korea will just say they are not responsible for the Jan. 21 incident once I’m gone, like many other incidents North Korea has caused,” he said.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Interestingly enough there is evidence that Seoul may have captured more than just Kim Shin-jo alive.  The below Joong Ang Ilbo article claims that there was in fact 33 commandos sent to kill President Park, but ROK intelligence was able to convert two of them into double agents to spy on North Korea:

North Korea sent two more spies to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung Hee on Jan. 21, 1968, than previously disclosed, a North Korean defector claimed in an interview with the JoongAng Sunday published yesterday.

They were captured alive and sent back to the North as double agents, said the 57-year-old defector, who trained in the 1970s at the same North Korean special military unit as the commandos dispatched to the South. He goes by the alias Hong Eun-taek.

Publicly, the government says 31 North Korean commandos attempted to raid the Blue House in what was one of the boldest North Korean attempts to assassinate a South Korean leader, and all were killed during the raid, except for one, Kim Shin-jo.

“The record left at the unit where I served said that 33 people were sent to the South and two of them escaped [to the North],” Hong said.

Hong served in the eighth battalion of North Korea’s 711 unit in the 1970s, which was the successor of the 124 unit that sent the commandos on the Blue House raid.

He identified the two North Korean commandos who returned to the North as Lim Tae-yong and Wu Myong-hun. Hong said Lim was the chief of the eighth battalion when he was serving there.

He said the two double agents were promoted to two-star or three-star generals after their return to the North.

But they were executed in 1998 when their spying for the South was disclosed.

Hong said there was a widespread rumor in the North Korean military of them being double agents right before their executions.

Hong claimed that another commando was also caught alive, of higher rank than Lim and Wu. The South tried to persuade the three to return to the North as double agents, and they resisted.

The higher ranking commando was beheaded with a farming implement in front of Lim and Wu, and terrified, they signed onto the plan and pledged allegiance to the South, Hong said.

They were returned to the North and told to advance as high as possible in the military, Hong said.

One of the North Korean commandos killed during the raid was indeed found with his head missing. Kim Shin-jo, believed to have been the only survivor, was forced to identify the bodies of his colleagues after the raid.

A Jan. 26, 1968 JoongAng Ilbo article reporting on the incident quoted Kim as saying, “I don’t know [who he is].”

Kim Shin-jo became a South Korean citizen in 1970 and became a Christian pastor in 1997.

The defector who uses the alias Hong Eun-taek defected to the South in 2001.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Conclusion

The Blue House Raid is quite possibly the most unbelievable provocation between North and South Korea ever since the division of the peninsula.  The plan was so bold that it seemed certain to fail, yet these commandos came only 800 yards from completing their mission despite fully alerted authorities looking for them. The Blue House Raid may have been foiled, but the ability of the commandos to so easily infiltrate the DMZ and allude detection demonstrated lacking weaknesses in the security plan and training of both the US and Korean troops.

As bad as these weaknesses were, not all the aftermath of the Blue House Raid was bad.  The commandos’ mission was foiled by loyal citizens reporting their movements and one alert policemen who paid with his life for uncovering the commandos.  This proved to Park that more then just the military was loyal to his rule, but that South Korean citizens were as well.  This incident clearly showed that a true South Korean identity separate from the North Koreans had been formed during Park’s rule in the 1960’s.  However, before US and ROK military leaders could even contemplate the negatives and the positives of the Blue House Raid, another crisis would break out two days later; the capture of the USS Pueblo.

Further Reading:

• Andrei Lankov in the Korea Times
• TIME Magazine
• Korean War.org
• New York Times, February 18, 1968
• Military History Now

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

On October 31, 1966, US President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived in South Korea to meet with then South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee. This was the first time that President Johnson had traveled to South Korea and President Park was eager to make an impression.  Here is how the Stars & Stripes described the seen as President Johnson arrived in Seoul to a crowd estimated at 250,000 people:

Image via Scenes from an Unfinished War.

SEOUL — President and Mrs. Johnson got a rousing Texas-style welcome here Monday.

They were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd estimated at 2 million as they flew to the Republic of Korea on the last leg of a 7-nation trip.

Officials traveling with the presidential party called the welcome the largest and most enthusiastic of the trip.

At times, the ecstasy almost resulted in tragedy.

Frenzied crowds estimated at 250,000 at Seoul’s City Hall Plaza roared approval at the sight of Johnson so loud and long that the speech of Korean President Chung Hee Park was drowned in the din.

The mob also overran a 2,000-member girls’ chorus near the presidential stand, trampling some of the girls underfoot, and at one time threatened to break Secret Service lines and overflow onto the speaker’s stand.

One 57-year-old Seoul woman was hospitalized with serious injuries after being trampled and 12 persons were treated for minor injuries.

The entire 9-mile motorcade route in Seoul was lined with crowds 20-30 persons deep.

Much of the crowd was made up of schoolchildren waving U.S. and Korean flags and carrying hand-painted signs bearing greetings to the President and First Lady. The city’s schools were closed for the occasion.

The President stopped the motorcade five times to shake hands with Koreans along the route between Kimpo International Airport, where he landed at about 3 p.m., and Seoul’s city hall. Several times along the route, the crowd surged forward past police lines and flooded around the car bearing the two presidents.

At city hall, order among the roaring crowd was restored only after Deputy Prime Minister Key Young Chang personally took charge of police lines and appealed to the front ranks of the crowds.

Johnson told the city hall crowd that Koreans should be “rightly proud” of the rebuilding job they have done after the Korean War leveled the nation, and suggested that Asia was experiencing “a new spirit of cooperation.

“That spirit of cooperation in this part of the world was shared by the seven nations who met at Manila last week.

“That historic meeting, which you first suggested … affirmed the broad partnership and the common purpose of free Pacific nations — a partnership that will endure long after the communist aggression is ended in Vietnam,” Johnson said in his speech.

(“Here in Korea, our fighting men stand with your own along the Demilitarized Zone, and we shall come once again to your defense if aggression — God forbid — should occur here again,” he added, AP said.)

(“To an American, the free soil of Korea is hallowed ground,” Johnson told the throng police estimated at some 350,000.)

(“More than 54,000 Americans died in the bitter 1950-53 battle to save this mountainous peninsula country from communist invaders from the north. Today South Korea has around 45,000 soldiers helping the allied cause in South Vietnam.”)

The two partnership efforts against Red aggression and Korea’s remarkable recent economic progress were main themes of the visit.

Park said Korea had “undiminished appreciation” for the help the United States has given it during the past quarter-century.

“We have been much indebted to you as comrades-in-arms,” he said.

“Please be assured that ours is not a nation which will indefinitely continue to be indebted to others, but rather is a nation which knows how to requite its obligations, which has a keen sense of responsibility, and which abides by good faith.”

At city hall, Johnson was officially welcomed to Korea and presented a gold key to the city of Seoul by Mayor Hyun Ok Kim.

President and Mrs. Johnson were honored Monday night at a state dinner given by the Korean first family at the national capitol. After the dinner they attended an art festival in Seoul’s Citizens’ Hall.

Tuesday, Park and Johnson had a private, 30-minute talk.

Johnson was to visit the Korean 26th Inf. Div. and the U.S. 36th Engineer Group, both near Uijongbu, 13 miles north of Seoul later Tuesday. He was to lunch with U.S. troops.

In the afternoon, the President was to visit an agricultural display at Suwon, 20 miles south of Seoul, where he was also to have a hill named after him.

Johnson will wind up his Far East trip Wednesday with visits to the National Cemetery and Korean National Assembly, where he will give a speech on nationwide television.  [Stars & Stripes]

As well as President Johnson’s trip was going, evil was lurking in the background. Early on the morning of November 2nd, the same morning that President Johnson was projected to leave Korea, members of the North Korean 17th Foot Reconnaissance Brigade followed an eight man patrol of US Army soldiers with Company A, 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division.  The soldiers were patrolling about 1 kilometer south of the DMZ near the Libby Bridge. The North Koreans set a hasty ambush ahead of the patrol and engaged them with hand grenades and small arms fire.  After they cut down the patrol the North Koreans shot a few more rounds into some of the bodies and stuck their bayonets in others.  Six Americans and a Korean Augmentee to the US Army (KATUSA) were killed by the attack.  Incredibly a seventh American soldier, PFC David L. Bibee some how survived the attack by playing dead.  Here is what he had to say afterwards:

PFC David L. Bibee . . . 17 years old. He was wounded but escaped death by playing dead. “The only reason I’m alive now is because I didn’t move when a North Korean yanked my watch off my wrist.  [Korean War Project]

At the same time of the attack on the US soldiers, a ROK Army patrol was also ambushed killing 2 soldiers.  Both attacks were well timed and well executed.  The below Google Earth image shows where Libby Bridge is located outside the village of Changpa-ri and where the DMZ fence is located.  The ambush would of happened in the hills between the bridge and the fence:

With the attack happening during President Johnson’s Korea trip this caused the attack to make headlines in the US.  Here is how the November 3, 1966 Stars & Stripes reported the attack:

This attack along with others during this timeframe would become part of what became known as the “DMZ War“.  The North Korean regime led by Kim Il-sung was launching attacks in an effort to test US resolve to defend Korea during the Vietnam War. He hoped the attacks would create a wedge between the US and ROK alliance while simultaneously sending in operatives to create an insurgency within South Korea.  Fortunately Kim Il-sung’s strategy failed, but it cost the lives of the following men in the 2nd Infantry Division patrol ambushed on November 2, 1966:

• Benton, Johnny Wayne 2 Nov 66. Vermont.
• Burrell, Robert Wayne 2 Nov 66. Mt. Ayr, Indiana
• Fischer, Morris Lee 2 Nov 66. Wisconsin.
• Hasty, Leslie L. 2 Nov 66. Palestine, Texas.
• Hensley, James. 2 Nov 66. Stockridge, Michigan.
• Reynolds, Ernest D. 2 Nov 66. Missouri. P
• Myong, Pfc Hwan Oh 2 Nov 66.  KATUSA attached to A Co. 1/23 2ID Camp Wally

Of note is that Private Reynolds who was Killed in Action during the ambush, was nominated for the Medal of Honor and was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.  He had only been in Korea 17 days.  Ernest D. Reynolds was born October 13,1946 in Maryville, Missouri to Lowell D. and Joyce A. Reynolds (died 2011). In 1958 the family moved to Northeast Kansas City, Missouri. Ernie went to Whittier Elementary and graduated from Northeast High School in 1964. In 1986 the family was in Seoul for the dedication of the Reynolds Range.  He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Maryville, MO.  Private Reynolds is survived by his siblings Melody, Roger and Sharon.  Here is his Silver Star citation:

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Silver Star Medal (Posthumously) to Ernest D. Reynolds (US-55881470), Private, U.S. Army, for gallantry in action while engaged in military operations, while serving with Company A, 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Private Reynolds distinguished himself by gallantry in action on 2 November 1966, in the Republic of Korea, by sacrificing his own life in the defense of his fellow soldiers. Private Reynolds was a member of a patrol operating near the southern boundary of the Demilitarized Zone in Korea when his patrol was attacked and overrun by an armed patrol of the North Korean Army. Prior to the attack, as rear security man, he had occupied a concealed position and opened fire upon the enemy, and he continued to fire until he himself was killed. His indomitable courage, determination, and profound concern for his fellow soldiers, are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the 2d Infantry Division, and the United States Army. Department of the Army, General Orders No. 16 (April 4, 1967) Home State: Missouri Personal Awards: Silver Star (Korea-1966), Purple Heart.

The Korean War is known as the “Forgotten War”, but for the soldiers that served on the Korean frontier during the “DMZ War” their conflict should be known as the “Really Forgotten War” since so few people know about it.  Fortunately the 2nd Infantry Division today is beginning to embrace and remember the brave soldiers who served on the frontlines of the DMZ War.  It is because of the service of the brave men that served in Korea during this time period that Kim Il-sung’s strategy was thwarted and South Korea was able to develop into the thriving democracy and economic miracle that it is today.

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

It is good to see that 2ID is honoring the veterans that served during the period of what has since been known as the DMZ War which few Americans or even military servicemembers know about:

Bob Haynes expected to be sent to fight in the rapidly escalating war in Vietnam like other men his age in the mid-1960s. Instead, he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s Camp Stanley, a world away from Southeast Asia’s steamy jungles.

“I looked at my orders and said, ‘Where the hell is Korea?’ ” said the McHenry, Ill., resident, now 67.

On Haynes’ first night at the Demilitarized Zone, North Korean forces launched a pre-dawn ambush on a 2ID patrol that killed six Americans and one South Korean soldier just a half-mile south of the heavily patrolled border. A seventh American was wounded.

When he learned of the skirmish, Haynes, then 19, was shocked.

“I turned to my buddy and said, ‘It’s too cold to be Vietnam here. What’s going on?’ ”

For Haynes and other 2ID soldiers, the November 1966 skirmish highlighted the ongoing danger of being stationed near the DMZ within close proximity of North Korean forces, even as the simmering conflict on the peninsula was overshadowed by the war in Vietnam.

Haynes returned along with 17 other 2ID veterans to mark the division’s 50th anniversary Wednesday. One of their first stops was a memorial at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan that lists the 130 U.S. and South Korean troops killed in combat since the 1953 armistice, including those who died in the 1966 ambush.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Between 1966-1970 what became known as the “DMZ War” raged which saw soldiers stationed on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in regular contact with North Korean infiltrators probing US military defenses as well as trying to enter the country in order to establish a communist insurgency in the South. However sometimes the infiltration by the North Koreans was for the single minded purpose of killing Americans and that is exactly what happened on May 22, 1967 at an isolated American installation on the DMZ known as Camp Walley.  Camp Walley was an extremely small camp located adjacent to the north side of the Imjim River and short distance from the DMZ. The camp housed one company of infantrymen from A/1-23 Infantry Regiment.  The camp was basically just a small collection of quonset huts to house the men in between their guard shifts and patrol duty along the DMZ. Here is an image of what the small camp looked like:

Picture of Camp Walley via the Imjim Scouts website.

At dusk on May 21, 1967 a North Korean sapper unit infiltrated through the American patrolled area of the DMZ. The sapper team was carrying explosives that were intended to be used for the express purpose of bombing an American barracks. Prior infiltrations with the purpose of killing American soldiers had centered around small arms ambushes near the DMZ. This attack was going to be different and intended to send a message to the Americans that not even in their barracks away from the frontlines were they safe.  The North Korean sappers infiltrated 6 kilometers behind the American lines before coming upon Camp Walley. The North Koreans were so skilled at infiltration that they were actually able to creep around the camp and look into the different buildings and determine which ones had the most people in it before blowing them up. Unfortunately for the men of 1st Platoon, A Company, 1-23 Infantry Regiment, their barracks were chosen by the North Koreans to be the one that was blown up. The saboteurs set their explosives on two different barracks and fled.  At dawn the explosives went off destroying the two buildings.  Here is how the May 24, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes reported the bombing:

This image of the barracks bombing was provided courtesy of Jim Skiff who was a lieutenant assigned to the unit:

More pictures of the bombing can be seen on the Imjim Scouts website.

The blast from the bombing shook the entire camp and immediately alerted everyone that the base was under attack. Some of the Alpha company’s men began to sift through the rubble to find survivors while the Company Commander Captain Duncan personally led the sweep into the surrounding countryside to find the infiltrators. Unfortunately the search team came up empty and were not able to find them; they had long since fled the scene.  The bombing killed two soldiers and wounded 17 others. The soldiers killed were SP4 Carl R. Mueller from Texas and PVT Baron J. Smith from Washington State who were killed in their beds while sleeping. However, looking at the damage it is amazing that only two soldiers were killed in the bombing.

The North Korean sappers that conducted the operation were quite skilled according to Major Roger Donlon who was the first US Medal of Honor recipient in the Vietnam War who happened to be stationed on the DMZ at the time::

WITH THE U.S. 2ND INF. DIV., Korea TV Maj. Roger Donlon looked with both bitterness and admiration at the mangled and blasted remains of what had been two large barracks.

It had been a fast, neat job of sabotage and killing this Donlon had to admit. The North Korean commando team came in after dusk and went out before dawn, May 22, 1967. They had done their work with lethal efficiency and two American soldiers were dead in a heap of shattered rubble.

“At first,” said Donlon, “you admire a professional job. Then it makes you mad.”

The death and sabotage was one of the first sights to greet Donlon when he came into the U.S. 2nd Inf. Div. in May, a major for only two months.

You could spot him as a soldier anywhere. The close-cropped blond hair, the steady blue eyes, the set and determined features, the erect posture it’s all there, to mark Donlon’s profession and trade.

But when Donlon came to Korea, he did not wear two distinctive marks of the career he chose several years ago. He left his green beret back in Vietnam when he left in 1964 as a severely-wounded casualty. And the blue, white-starred ribbon that marks him as a Medal of Honor winner is not worn on his plain, no-frills uniform. An all-business soldier, Donlon only wears his Combat Infantryman Badge.

Donlon, the first soldier to win America’s highest award in the Vietnam War, is now in Korea. But the infiltration, terrorism and sudden death Donlon knew in another land are still part of his life. As a Special Forces man, he appraised the bombing with a coldly professional eye. As an American and a soldier, he felt grief and anger.

Where once the enemy was a stealthy little man named Charlie, who wore black pajamas and fought from waist-deep paddy slime, now Donlon must deal with an expertly silent intruder named Joe. Joe breaches barbed wire and creeps over dead, winter-browned farmland to blast sleeping men and attack frontline guard posts along the 18-mile sector of the Demilitarized Zone manned by Americans.

Joe deserves a very respectful kind of enmity and Donlon knows it. But Donlon feels that Joe has a long way to go before he can match the Vietnamese farmer who turns into a death-dealing guerrilla at dusk.

“They (the North Koreans) are well trained, and no doubt they’re very professional. But they’re not as good as the Viet Cong not yet. If you look at that one incident, yes, they did a job. They’re just not as tough and smart as Charlie, though. And there’s not as many of them, thank God.” [Stars & Stripes]

The fact that the North Korean sappers received recognition from someone of Major Donlon’s stature gives a good indication of how skilled the North Korean infiltrators were at the time, especially to pull off something like this so far from the DMZ.  The below tactical map shows how Camp Walley was located 6 kilometers away from the DMZ:

Really when you think about it, the fact that the North Korean infiltrators were able to cross mine fields, get through fencing, and evade hundreds of soldiers on patrol is really quite remarkable. The Google Earth image below gives an even better idea of the conditions and the type of terrain the saboteurs had to cross in order to accomplish their mission:

As Major Donlon indicated, you have to respect the enemy’s capabilities, but you can hate them for doing what they did. The bombing ended up not having the effect the North Koreans had intended. Instead of increasing fear in US troops it actually motivated them because of the cowardice of the attack. The bombing just made the soldiers serving on the DMZ more motivated to confront the North Korean threat and increased their vigilance while patrolling the DMZ. It was quite clear now that stopping infiltrations could literally mean the difference between life and death for the soldiers off duty in the rear.

Another unanticipated result of the barracks bombing was that units stationed even further in the rear then Camp Walley were ordered to conduct regular patrolling outside the camps. Units stationed at US military installations in Dongducheon and in Uijongbu were ordered to conduct regular patrols around their installations in search of North Korean infiltrators. These increased patrols created more difficulty for North Korean infiltrators to move around the countryside undetected as well as creating difficulty for spies to gather intelligence around American military installations. Instead of creating fear, the bombing simply strengthened the resolve of American units to confront the North Korean threat.

After the bombing the USFK Commander General Charles Bonesteel recognized the survivors of the attack with Purple Hearts. Here is how the May 30, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes reported this event:

Here is a list of the 17 soldiers presented Purple Hearts by General Bonesteel:

• SSG Jose Ruiz-Rodriguez
• SPC Erskine Clifford
• PFC Billy Lee
• PFC Arvie Cothren
• PFC Clifford Butler
• PFC Michael Key
• PFC Raul Gallardo
• PVT Danny Howarth
• PVT Curtis Flewellen
• PVT William Butzin
• PVT Thomas Lawrence
• PFC Stanley Isaac
• PFC Joseph Kinchen
• SSG Thomas Anderson
• SPC Nathaniel Conley
• PFC Thomas Rush
• PVT Gerald Conley

As far as Camp Walley today, next to nothing remains of the installation:

In the above picture you can make out the remains of what could have been buildings on the side of the hill. Camp Walley and the bombing that happened there is largely forgotten by everyone except for the people that served there.  The Korean War may have been known as the “Forgotten War”, but the “DMZ War” should been known as the “Really Forgotten War” since so few people know about this period in US military history.  Fortunately the 2nd Infantry Division is beginning to embrace this part of the unit’s history and remembering the soldiers who served during the DMZ War.  Maybe there should be a memorial of some kind to honor the victims of this cowardly bombing attack as well?

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

Here is a rare method of defection from North Korea:

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the inter-Korean border Monday, an official from the Ministry of National Defense said.

“A North Korean man presumed to be a serviceperson defected to our side earlier this morning,” a ministry official said, requesting anonymity.

“He crossed the border in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, on foot, and expressed his will to defect,” he added, noting that he has been under investigation by relevant authorities.

Other details including the identity of the man and his motive are yet to be known.

Over the past several years, South Korea has seen a series of defection cases from the poverty-stricken communist neighbor. But it is not usual for North Korean soldiers to walk crossing the Military Demarcation Line to defect. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I hope this soldier did not have any immediate family because if he did they are likely heading to the gulag.

Via a reader tip comes a link to this State Department document from the minutes of the Washington Special Actions Group Meeting on August 18, 1976 after Washington policy makers became aware of the DMZ Axe Murder Incident. The document show the internal deliberations that Secretary State Henry Kissinger had with his staff, the Department of Defense, and the CIA in regards to formulating a response to the murders of two US Army officers by the North Koreans. Here is an excerpt from the document:

Secretary Kissinger: Well there are two problems as I see it. The first problem is that two American officers have been beaten to death. The second problem is to review the procedures we are following in the DMZ. Now, regarding the first issue, I agree with the CIA analysis. My impression is that it was a premeditated attack. There were some fifty other things they could have done to stop us from pruning the tree.

Now this letter Stilwell wants to send to Kim. Why should he send a letter to Kim? What standing does he have?

Mr. Habib: Well Stilwell is the Commander of the UN Forces and Kim is the Commander of the North Korean Army. Kim also signed the original peace agreement.

Secretary Kissinger: There have already been White House and State Department statements deploring these murders. Why do we now also need a Stilwell statement? Does he have the authority to make a statement?

Mr. Abramowitz: No. He needs Washington approval.

Secretary Kissinger: Well lets put that in abeyance. I have talked to the President today about this. He feels that some sort of strong action is necessary but does not know precisely what it should be. Now there are two things that come to my mind. A few weeks ago we turned off a B-52 exercise because it would be provocative to the Chinese. We might resurrect that exercise. The second possibility would be to alert all forces in Korea.

Adm. Holloway: We could go from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 3.

Secretary Kissinger: What would that do?

Adm. Holloway: Unless we had a specific plan in mind or the North Koreans felt we had a specific plan in mind they probably would not react at all.

Secretary Kissinger: Well on that basis you could not threaten anything.

Mr. Abramowitz: Stilwell recommends that we finish pruning the tree.

Mr. Clements: I am in complete accord with that and think we should cut the God damn thing down.

Secretary Kissinger: I am in favor of that too but I don’t think we should do anything about the tree until after we do something with our forces. What is the meaning of the DEFCON alert stages?

Adm. Holloway: 5 is normal and 1 is war. Stage 2 means that war is inevitable and stage 1 is when the shooting starts.

Mrs. Colbert: If the alert were moved up to 3 how would the media and the U.S. people react to that in this campaign year.

Secretary Kissinger: That has nothing to do with it. The important thing is that they beat two Americans to death and must pay the price.

Mrs. Colbert: The North Koreans are looking for indications that they can create another Vietnam type mentality in this country. Therefore to disabuse them of this it is important to have the right kinds of expressions of support from the media and opinion makers.

Secretary Kissinger: What about resurrecting the B-52 exercise? The State Department hereby withdraws its objections to it. This is tow the best time in the world to run it.

Mr. Habib: It was a training exercise.

Mr. Abramowitz: Would it scare the Americans or the Koreans?

Mr. Gleysteen: There is another exercise planned.

Secretary Kissinger: But everybody already knows about that one.

Mr. Clements: Is it true that in the exercise we would fly the B-52s over Korea and then go back?

Adm. Holloway: Yes.

Secretary Kissinger: How long would it take?

Lt. Gen. Smith: We could get it going in 72 hours possibly less.

Secretary Kissinger: The quicker the better.  [State Department Historian]

You can read much more at the link, but all these deliberations led to Operation Paul Bunyan where the tree was cut down backed by massive US firepower in case the North Koreans tried to retaliate.  What else is interesting is that deploying B-52’s and other bombers is still something the US government does to this day to send a message to the North Koreans.

 

This month will be the 13 year anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six South Korean sailors murdered by the North Koreans along the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea.  What was probably the most disgraceful about this attack was how the then South Korean government did everything possible to cover up the attack to maintain the illusion of the Sunshine Policy.  Even worse was that the deceased sailors were treated like they were criminals:

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more about this attack at the below link:

• DMZ Flashpoints: The 2002 West Sea Naval Battle

However, times have changed and now with Sunshine Policy exposed for the fraud that it was the Korean movie industry is releasing a movie this month heroically depicting the ROK sailors that fought in the 2002 West Sea Battle:

The forgotten sacrifices made by young South Korean sailors during a bloody naval clash with North Korea 13 years ago will be portrayed on the silver screen in a new film funded partly by citizens.

The movie titled “Battle of Yeonpyeong,” to be released next week, is based on the naval skirmish between the two Koreas on June 29, 2002, in waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea.
Six sailors were killed and 18 others were injured after a fierce exchange of fire, which was sparked when two North Korean patrol boats infiltrated the maritime border.

The occasion, which is known to also have caused some 30 casualties in the North, is called the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, with the first battle taking place in 1999.  “I’ve wanted to depict the ironic situation where the young sailors, who are someone’s beloved sons, fathers, and friends, were killed on one side, while others were overwhelmed by the 2002 World Cup,” Kim Hak-soon, director of the film, said Wednesday ahead of a press preview.  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest of the article at the link, but I look forward to watching this movie.

It looks like the Kim regime is intent to keep tensions high along the maritime DMZ:

North Korea is building military camps for shore batteries on a tensely guarded Yellow Sea border island, the South’s military authorities said Tuesday.

“Five bunker-shaped camps have been built on the island of Gal,” a military officer said, requesting anonymity, citing the North Korean island just above the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border of the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

“The North is expected to either deploy 122-millimeter multiple rocket launchers there or to use them as guard posts,” he said, adding the military is closely monitoring the movements there.

This file photo, dated May 28, 2009, shows a Chinese fishing vessel sailing past the island of Gal just above the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border of the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea. South Korea`s military officials said on May 26, 2015. (YONHAP) (END)
The island is located just 4.5 kilometers away from South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, where the communist country launched an artillery attack in November 2010, killing two Marines and two civilians, and wounding more than a dozen others. [Yonhap]

The North Koreans seem to be building up to another provocation cycle over the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea:

Adm. Choi Yun-hee, the chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the Navy’s western command headquarters on Saturday, vowing to defend the Yellow Sea border against possible provocations from North Korea.

Also on Saturday, North Korea test-fired three anti-ship missiles into the sea off its east coast in what was seen as its latest show of force against Seoul.

South Korean military officials identified the North’s anti-ship missiles KN-01 cruise missiles and said the missiles were fired off into the sea off Wonsan, a major port on the North’s east coast, in a span of one hour starting at 4:25 p.m.

The missiles with a range of 100 kilometers are believed to have been modified from Chinese Silkworm missiles, they said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but all though the North Koreans test fired the missiles into the East Sea in was clearly intended to send a message to the South Korean Navy operating ships along the NLL.

It appears that the North Koreans may be ramping up to justify a provocation in the Yellow Sea:

South and North Korea exchanged barbs on Friday over Pyongyang’s claims of South Korean ships’ violation of the western sea border.

In what it called “an emergency special warning,” the communist country’s Command in Southwestern Sector of Front claimed that South Korean Navy speedboats made a “military provocation” by deeply intruding into the North’s territorial waters in the Yellow Sea two or three times a day between May 1 and 7.

“From this moment, it will make a sighting strike without any prior warning at any warship of the South Korean Navy intruding into the extension of demarcation line in the hotspot (of the sea),” said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea also threatened to successively deal stronger blows to the South’s ships if South Korea makes counterattacks on the North, according to the KCNA.

Pyongyang does not acknowledge the border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire. The North has long demanded that the line be drawn farther south.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.