How a North Korean Assassin’s Failed Attempt to Kill a President Led Him to God
Lt. Kim Shin-jo was part of a 31-member team of North Korean commandos, Unit 124, who were sent by the supreme leader and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, to assassinate South Korean president Park Chung-hee. The year was 1968.
The team of commandos, exhausted from their covert mission across the border, ran into some woodcutters in a forest clearing. Despite the team being dressed in South Korean army uniform, the workers were suspicious. When they asked them if they were from the North, Kim replied, “We are here to liberate you and bring communism to South Korea.”
“I was in charge of the assault element, which would secure the first floor, allowing the rest of the team to proceed upstairs and kill Park,” another member of the team, Lt. Kim Shin-jo, said in an interview with NBC News on the 50th anniversary of the fateful day that he crossed the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea.
“It had to be a short-term war,” Mr. Kim told the South China Morning Post. “In the Korean war, North Korea could not win due to lack of money, lack of resources. The strategy was to win before US aircraft from Okinawa could arrive. It had to be a swift, asymmetrical attack.”
Now with their cover blown, Kim and his team decided that their only option was to kill the workmen and bury their bodies. But there was a problem – the ground was frozen solid in the harsh winter conditions.
So, Captain Kim drew up a contract, lecturing the group on the values of communism, and asked them to “join the revolution or die.” The woodcutters signed the document and were released by the group. They headed to the nearest South Korean army post and reported the encounter with Unit 124.
“They blocked the roads, but they could not stop us,” Kim told SCMP. “They thought we would move at 8km/h, but we moved at 12km/h. They blocked the roads behind us: We had already passed through.”
At this time, North Korea was arguably in a stronger military and economic position compared to its Southern neighbor. Plus, America’s preoccupation with Vietnam gave the North a timely opportunity to attempt to reunite the Korean landmass.
Unit 124 pushed on with their mission. Now dressed in civilian clothes and draped in trench coats to hide their sub-machine guns and grenades, the team were being hotly pursued by the South Korean military. The group dodged patrols and walked through checkpoints. They were now just 350 yards away from the Blue House presidential residence. “We were confident,” recalled Mr. Kim. “We knew all about the Blue House defense; we didn’t think much of their bodyguards.”
Finally, the commandos were stopped by a police chief who drew his pistol and demanded to see what was under their coats. Another of the North Korean operatives opened fire, killing the chief. An intense firefight broke out between the North Korean commandos and the heavily armed Capital Garrison Command protecting the presidential residence.
By the time the battle had ended, almost 100 people were dead, including civilians who had been caught up in the crossfire. With South Korean reinforcements flooding in from every direction, the commando team knew their mission to assassinate the President had become impossible to complete. Captain Kim ordered a retreat, and the team split up.
But Kim Shin-jo knew that fleeing back to North Korea was a futile exercise. “I thought, first of all, I want to live,” Kim Shin-jo told NBC. “If I die after killing Park Chung-hee, then I’ve fulfilled my duty,” Kim Shin-jo said he remembered thinking. “But if I don’t kill Park Chung-hee, why should I die?”
