Asahi Shimbun, April 1, 2002
 
 


 





- CERTIFICATE FOR SWEEPING MISSION -


 

* Resistration No. 00269
* Attachment: OO Regiment
* Official Rank & Name: Private First Class (Pfs.) Sungwoon Kang
* Serial Number: 96-71022201
   
  I hereby confer this Certificate of Commendation for Bravery and Participation on you who participated in this time campaign for sweeping invading spies of People's Army at Gangrueng area (September 16~November 7, 1996).

November 8, 1996

Major General, ROK Army
Divisional Commander, 22nd Infantry Division
 

 

(TRANSLATION) In the heart of rough mountains which was very close from De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) of Korean Peninsula, private Sungwoon Kang(27) heard muffled sound from the deep of night. Sungwoon shouted his maximum voice out three times.

  "Freeze! If you continue to move, I will fire!"

  It was a sudden happening which occurred during the midst of campaign for sweeping armed commandos of People's Army who lurked into the mountains in South Korea, after their submarine for infiltration conspiracy  stroke on the rock in the sea near east coast of South Korea (September ~ November 1996).

  Sungwoon asked his senior, a sergeant, to request a backup force from headquarter, and he ran down to downward slope alone to follow suspicious sound in hot pursuit.

  'If I shoot or catch this guy alive, I will be hero.'

  Sungwoon unlocked his safety bolt and moved his finger on the the trigger of K-2 rifle. He couldn't see any more since he was left in the midnight's darkness alone.

  'Pull a trigger now anyway? Or act more prudently until backup force arrive?'

  There came something suspicious sound again.
 
  'I may be killed!'

  At the same time, memory about parents came across his mind.

  'It would better be killed gloriously in action if only I can fire enemy just a shot. There's no doubt that I certainly will be the pride of my parents.'

  He was bathed in perspiration. After all, Sungwoon could not get to the root of suspicious sound. It may be a beast. But he never forgets cold and metallic sense of touch which trigger made me felt at that time.

(omission of the middle part) Sungwoon who aimed his rifle to an unidentified object is studying political science at a university in Tokyo. He also lost his comrade-in-arms during that mission. Sgt. Sungwoon Kang (Res.) says;

  "It's really thankful for me to have just one glass of beer pulled out from a cooled refrigerator and always have a free hand to do so."

  A thought like this flashes across his mind while he has lived among Japanese youngsters.

  

 
Text for Japanese and Korean

*Japanese text is an original appeared at Asahi Shimbun which is major newspaper of Japan, and Korean text is translated one for Koreans.

 

 

 

The Case of Submarine Infiltration on an East-coast Beach (Sept. 18, 1996)
National Intelligence Service (NIS), Korea
http://www.nis.go.kr/eng/activity/intelligence03.html


Facts

A cab driver driving along a coastal highway in Kangdong, Kangnung, Kangwon Province noticed two suspicious persons at 0:55. In nearby Taepo-dong, Aninji-ri, he saw a submarine that had run aground and alerted the police.
 
A combined group of military, police, and reserve forces were quickly dispatched to the area to hunt down any armed infiltrators.

 
In the hunt, only Lee Kwang-su, a submarine crewman, was captured alive in Mojon-ri, Kangdong-myon, in Kangung, while 11 bodies were discovered in the Mt. Chonghak area, presumed to have killed themselves.
 
After Sept. 19, 13 armed infiltrators including the chiefs of the reconnaissance and crew teams, were killed in a shootout in the nearby Tankyong ravine and Mt. Chilsung, not far from where the submarine ran aground.
 
The authorities seized the Shark-class submarine, RPG-7 anti-tank recoilless rifles, M-16s, AK assault rifles, special maps, and long-range cameras - all in all, 4,012 items of 327 kinds.

 
The hunt, however, inflicted about 12 casualties - three civilians and nine soldiers - for the South.

 

The route taken by the submarine and its mission

The Result of Lee Kwang-su's Investigation

 
The submarine departed its base in Nakwon, South Hamkyong Province at 05:00 on Sept. 14 with 26 members of the People's Army, including the chief of the Maritime Unit of the Reconnaissance Bureau, a full colonel, three reconnaissance officers, and other contact persons.
 
The submarine reached the beaches of Aninji-ri, Kangnung at 20:00 on Sept. 15, where they dropped off three reconnaissance officers and awaited their return.
 
The team and the crew fled to the nearby mountains at 23:50, burning important equipment and materials on the submarine.
   




- Built in Nampo, South Hamkyong Province in December 1994. Pongdae Boiler Factory.

- The 350-ton submarine measures 35 meters in length, 3.5 meters in width, and 6.7 meters in height.

- Highest velocity stands at 7.5 knots, and when submerged, 6 knots.

- Capacity to hold 30 crew members maximum.
 


Items Sized from North Korean Submarine and Armed Infiltrators

- Number of Seized Items : A total of 4,012 goods of 327 different types

- Weaponry : A total of 1,977 pieces, including RPG-7 anti-tank recoilless rifles

- Communication equipment : A total of 54 pieces of 13 different types, including a cryptogram

- Reconnaissance equipment : A total of 47 goods of 15 types, including videos and cameras

- Infiltration equipment : A total of 30 goods of 11 types, including wet suits, oxygen tanks, and webfoot

- Others : A total of 1,823 goods of 251 types, including South Korean military uniforms, and other clothing made in South Korea



Ruthless Tactics Practical by Armed North Korean Commandos to Protect Secrets

The armed infiltrators committed group suicide by killing 11 of their comrades with two to three shots from AK rifles and Tokarev pistols.
 
Each had one bullet in his pocket to kill himself in the event he failed to escape.
 
They killed three civilians, including an unarmed civillian in her 60s.


The Loophole in the North Korean Argument on the Incident

After the incident broke out, the North issued an official statement claiming that the submarine ran aground due to engine failures.
 
Counterclaim to the North's argument:
 
They killed three civilians, including an unarmed civillian in her 60s.

 
The armed commandos all wore civilian clothing or South Korean military fatigues.
 
They were heavily armed with weapons used by the South Korean military--M-16 rifles, grenades, and RPG-7 anti-tank recoilless guns.
 
They arried photographic film containing pictures of Yongdong Power Plant and Kangnung Airport and other government facilities, and maps of Kangwon Province and the Myongju area.
 
In the event of an engine failure, a submarine usually emerges out of the water, but the submarine is shown to have cruised underwater, in making its way to the South.
 
Near the area where the submarine ran aground, rocks showed signs of friction and erosion that could only have been caused by the whirring submarine propellars. The ocean current during that time was flowing north at 0.5 to 1 knots, but the submarine was 60 miles south of the military demarcation line.
   

Features of the case

This case clearly amounts to an act of aggression where a submarine was used to dispatch commandos armed with South Korean military fatigues, RPG-7 anti-tank recoilless rifles, anti-tank grenades, and AK rifles through South Korean beaches.
 
It was also intended as a reconnaissance mission, as on maps held by the commandos the Kangnung Airport runway and the Tonghae Highway were marked, and Yongdong Power Plant and the coastal shores along Kangwon Province were filmed.
 
t was the third largest elite group of commandos dispatched since a 31-member attack on the Presidencial Residence,Chongwadae in January 1968 and a 120 commando-attack in Ulchin-Samchok, also in Kangwon Province, in October 1968. The commandos, all part of the highly trained Reconnaissance Bureau of the People's Armed Forces Ministry, killed civilians.
 
This is another case of North Korea's refusal to forsake its policy of reunifying the two Koreas through Communist revolutionary tactics.

All Right Reserved. National Intelligence Service, Republic of Korea