The Blue House Raid: From Sleeping with the Dead to Man of God

North Korea is called the DPRK or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. That’s not even remotely accurate. North Korea is actually a monarchy. Kim Il-sung kicked off this party in 1945 pursuing unfiltered communism. In 1994 the old Marxist finally cashed in his hammer and sickle, and his son, Kim Jong-il took the reins of power. Like a proper old school despot, Kim Jong-il kept his boot on the necks of his poor starving subjects until 2011 when he, like his dad before him, died of cardiac disease. At that point, his son Kim Jong-un the Exceptionally Rotund took over.

Just as North Korea is actually a monarchy, so their particular brand of communism is in truth a religion. Its acolytes believe in communism’s capacity to transform lives and lead to moral salvation. They preach their peculiar gospel and expect its power to propagate its own supernatural accord. In January of 1968, however, the cult of communism got dealt a serious dose of reality. Then as now North and South Korea existed in a weird twilight state of smoldering conflict. The fighting ended in 1953 with a cease fire rather than an armistice, so both factions were and are still technically in a state of war. South Korea then was not the glowing beacon of freedom it is today.

In 1966 Kim Il-sung directed the formation of an elite assassination squad titled Unit 124. Comprised solely of commissioned officers from the Korean People’s Army, Unit 124 trained relentlessly for two years for a single mission. These 31 highly-trained operators were going to infiltrate South Korea, fight their way into the Blue House, the South Korean Presidential residence, and then murder President Park Chung-hee. The North Koreans believed that if they could throw President Park’s disembodied head off of the balcony at the Blue House, the downtrodden South Koreans would inexplicably rally to their communist cause, reunite the peninsula, and all would become right with the world. The reality, as is so often the case, was not quite so tidy.

On the evening of January 17, 1968, these 31 operators cut through the wire securing the DMZ. Two days later they had covertly crossed the Imjin River and established a patrol base on Simbong Mountain. All was going according to plan. Early afternoon on January 19 four South Korean brothers named Woo were out gathering firewood when they inadvertently stumbled onto the North Korean bivouac site. Presuming them to be South Koreans the brothers were friendly and engaging. The Unit 124 operators subdued the unarmed men in short order. Now things got complicated. SOP dictated that the NoKo troops simply liquidate the four captives and dispose of their corpses before driving on with the mission. However, the ground was hard frozen, and the communist commander appreciated that they could never dig deep enough. As a result, they opted rather to proselytize the four men into submission.

The North Korean soldiers conducted an ad hoc political indoctrination and extolled the many manifest virtues of collective living to their four erstwhile guests. The Woo brothers wisely proclaimed their complete and enthusiastic conversion to the Marxist cause. Now imbued with the holy spirit of Lenin the four were released with a stern warning not to tell anyone of their meeting. The four fresh converts maintained the charade long enough to get around the first corner and then scampered off to the Changyeon police station in Beopwonri to spill their guts. Now the fuse was lit. South Korean and American forces mobilized in pursuit of the North Korean hit team. Unit 124 fractionated into three and four-man cells and successfully trekked all the way to Seoul, making some fairly superhuman time in the process. They rendezvoused at the Seunggasa Temple to prepare for their actions on the objective.

Thanks to the Woo brothers, Seoul was now dirty with South Korean troops. The Unit 124 operators then changed into Republic of Korea (ROKA) Army uniforms and adopted the persona of an elite South Korean Army unit just returning from a field exercise. Thusly configured these 31 men simply marched across town to the Blue House, passing several South Korean Police and ROKA units along the way.

Once within a few hundred meters of the Presidential residence, Jongro police chief Choi Gyushik confronted the NoKo troops. Police Chief Choi realized that something was amiss, and things went truly sideways. There followed a most vigorous firefight wherein the valiant police chief was killed along with his assistant. Realizing they would never make it into the residence the Unit 124 commandos separated and led the ROKA and US forces on a merry chase. When the dust settled 26 friendlies were killed and another 66 wounded, 24 of whom were civilians. Most of the civilian casualties had been on a bus that happened into the crossfire. Four American soldiers also perished in the hunt for the remaining NoKo troops.

Of the 31 communist operators, 29 were eventually gunned down or committed suicide. Pak Jae-gyong escaped and evaded all the way back to North Korea where he was welcomed as a hero. He ended his military career as a General Officer and a member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which is apparently a pretty big deal. The last surviving NoKo operator, Kim Shin-jo, was captured hiding in a civilian home near Inwang mountain. He was subsequently interrogated for a year before being released and earning South Korean citizenship in 1970. When it became known that Kim was remaining voluntarily, North Korean authorities murdered his parents and his six siblings. Kim eventually found forgiveness through Christ, married a South Korean woman, and had two children. He became a pastor for a church outside Seoul where he remains today. With 70,000 members, Kim’s church is the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world. It seems Christianity ultimately trumped communism.

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