The Kim's: Grandfather, Father, and today Crazy Son
From Korean War, to Disunity, and Now This Goal
With latest news about North
Korea and their latest nuclear testing results, I thought it was a good time to
see who we are dealing with. How evil is North Korea, really? Let’s take a
look.
The DMZ dividing North and
South Korea has had numerous cases of incidents and incursions by the North,
however the North’s government never acknowledges direct responsibility for any
of these incidents. These have included these major events since the Korean War
ended on July 27, 1953 (with a cease fire and never a truce … the longest cease
fire in history):
October 1966 – October
1969: Korean
DMZ Conflict, a series of skirmishes
along the DMZ results in 43 American, 299 South Korean, and 397 North Korean
soldiers killed.
January 17, 1968: 31 North
Korean commandos crossed the border disguised as South Korean soldiers in
the Blue House (Presidential
Palace) raid, an attempt to
assassinate President Park Chung-Hee at
the Blue House. The failed mission resulted in 29 commandos killed
(one committed suicide) and the other two captured. Two South Korean policemen
and five civilians were killed by the commandos. Other reports indicated as
many as 68 South Koreans were killed and 66 wounded, including about 24
civilians. Three Americans were killed and another three wounded in an attempt
to prevent the commandos from escaping back via the DMZ.
October 1968: 130 North
Korean commandos entered the Ul-chin and Sam-cheok areas
in Gangwon-do. Eventually 110 of them were
killed, 7 captured, and 13 escaped.
March 1969: Six North Korean
infiltrators crossed the border near Chumun-jin, Gangwon-do and killed a
South Korean policeman on guard duty.
April 1970: Three North
Korean infiltrators were killed and five South Korean soldiers wounded at an
encounter in Kum-chon, Gyeonggi-do.
November 20, 1974: The first
of what would be a series of North Korean infiltration tunnels under the DMZ
was discovered. The joint ROK-U.S. investigation team tripped a North Korean
booby-trap, killing one American and wounding 6 others.
March 1975: The second North
Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
June 1976: Three North Korean
infiltrators and six South Korean soldiers were killed in the eastern sector
south of the DMZ. Another six South Korean soldiers were injured.
August 18, 1976: The tree
cutting Axe Murder Incident in the DMZ resulted in the death of two U.S.
soldiers and injuries to another four U.S. soldiers and five South Korean
soldiers.
July 14, 1977: An
American CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down after straying into the
north over the DMZ. Three airmen were killed and one was briefly held prisoner.
That was the sixth such flight incident since the armistice was signed.
October 1979: Three North
Korean agents attempting to infiltrate the eastern sector of the DMZ were
intercepted, killing one of the agents.
December 6, 1979: A U.S. Army
patrol in the DMZ accidentally crossed the line into a North Korean minefield.
One soldier was killed and four were injured.
March 1980: Three North
Korean infiltrators were killed attempting to enter the south across the
estuary of the Han River.
March 1981: Three North
Korean infiltrators spotted at Kum-hwa, Gangwon-do, with one being killed.
July 1981: Three North Korean
infiltrators were killed in the upper stream of Imjin River.
May 1982: Two North Korean
infiltrators were spotted on the east coast, with one being killed.
March 1990: The fourth North
Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered, in what may be a total of 17 tunnels
in all.
May 1992: Three North Korean
infiltrators dressed in South Korean uniforms were killed at Cheor-won,
Gangwon-do. Three South Koreans were also wounded.
December 17, 1994: An
American OH-58A Kiowa helicopter crossed some 10 km inside North
Korean territory and was shot down.
October 1995: Two North
Korean infiltrators were intercepted at Im-jin River. One was killed, while the
other escaped.
April 1996: Several hundred
North Korean armed troops enter the Joint Security Area and elsewhere on three occasions, in violation
of the Korean armistice agreement.
May 1996: Seven North Korean
soldiers crossed the DMZ, but withdrew when fired upon by South Korean troops.
April 1997: Five North Korean
soldiers crossed the DMZ in the Cheor-won sector and fired at South Korean
positions.
July 16, 1997: Fourteen North
Korean soldiers crossed the DMZ causing a half-hour exchange of heavy gunfire.
October 26, 2000: Two US
aircraft observing a ROK army military exercise accidentally cross over the
DMZ.
May 26, 2006: Two North
Korean soldiers entered the DMZ and crossed into South Korea. They returned
after South Korean soldiers fired warning shots.
October 7, 2006: South Korean
soldiers fired warning shots after five North Korean soldiers crossed briefly
into their side of the border.
October 27, 2009: A South
Korean pig farmer, who was wanted for assault, cut a hole in the DMZ fence and
defected to North Korea.
October 29, 2010: Two shots
were fired from North Korea toward a South Korean post near Hwa-cheon and
South Korean troops fired three shots in return.
October 6, 2012: An 18 year
old North Korean Army private defected to South Korea. He was apparently not
detected as he crossed the DMZ and had to knock on an ROK barracks door to draw
attention to himself. The soldier later told investigators that he had defected
after killing two of his superiors.
September 16, 2013: A 47-year
old man was shot dead by South Korean soldiers while trying to swim across the
Tanpo-cheon stream near Paju to North Korea.
In 1976, in now declassified
meeting minutes, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Clements told Henry Kissinger that there had been 200 raids or incursions into North
Korea from the south, though not by the U.S. military. Details of only a few of these incursions
have become public, including raids by South Korean forces in 1967 that had
sabotaged about 50 North Korean facilities.
Not DMZ related, per se, but significant nevertheless:
1. August 15, 1974: At 10:23 am, on the day which
is South Korean
Independence Day, First Lady Yuk,
Young-soo (Mrs. Park, Chung-hee) was shot and killed by Mun,
Se-gwang, a North Korean sympathizer (who had been living in Japan as
part of the Zai-nichi Korean party) during an attempt by his to assassinate
President Park Chung-hee at the at the Seoul National
Theater during his Independence
Day speech. President Park was uninjured after four shots were fired at him on
stage. The third bullet it the First Lady in the head. She died later at Seoul
National hospital after emergency surgery failed to save her.
2. October 9, 1983: The so-called “Rangoon
bombing” was a North Korean assassination attempt
against South Korean President Chun
Doo-hwan. Two of the bombers were captured, one confessed to being a North
Korean military officer on that North Korean ordered plan.
3. November 29, 1987: KAL flight 858 was on
a scheduled international passenger flight between Baghdad, Iraq to Seoul. The plane exploded
in mid-air upon the detonation of a bomb planted inside an overhead storage bin
in the airplane's passenger cabin by North
Korean agents.
The two agents, acting upon
orders from the North Korean government, planted the device in an overhead
storage bin before disembarking from the aircraft during the first stop-over in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
While the aircraft was flying over the Andaman
Sea to its second stop-over in Bangkok, the
bomb detonated and destroyed the Boeing 707. Everyone on board, 104
passengers and 11 crew members, most of whom were South Koreans, were killed.
The attack occurred 34 years after the Korean Armistice Agreement that
ended the hostilities of the Korean War on
27 July 1953.
The two bombers were traced
to Bahrain,
where they both took ampules of cyanide hidden
in cigarettes when they realized they were about to be taken into custody. The
male of the two died, but the female, Kim Hyon-hui (pictured
below in 1987 and today), survived and later confessed to the bombing.
Kim in 1987 Kim in 2013
She was sentenced to
death and then later pardoned by then President Roh
Tae-woo, because it was deemed that she had been brainwashed in North Korea
and her testimony implicated Kim
Jong-il, who at that time was the future leader of
North Korea.
That Kim (Kim , Jong-il) was named
as the person ultimately responsible for the incident. The U.S state
department specifically refers to the bombing of KAL 858 as a “terrorist act”
and, until 2008, listed North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Kim, Hyon-hui still lives in Seoul,
is married to her former body guard, and they have two children. At the time of
her trial she was called “Bomber Kim.”
As a matter of fact thousands
of defectors from North Korea now live in the south. But, North Korea, even on
that point, never admits that fully. They simply will say that they were captured
by the south and now used for propaganda, or in some cases they label them as “traitors.”
My assessment and summary of this:
Each phase of the Kim's
ruling family in North Korea is marked by a new and worse event ranging as
listed above. However, their move into the “Nuclear Age” is by far the worse and
it underscores their main purpose: To be able to sell their goods for cash to
the highest bidder.
All the while they claim it’s
for their own self-defense against perceived American attacks in the planning (which
they say all the time), and will use those weapons if they are attacked. North
Korea always plays the victim card while attacking others.
North Korea is perhaps the
poorest country on earth and yet poses a dangerous military threat. They still
practice hardcore communist tactics. China, their #1 trading source and “big
brother” always looks the other way and more recently told us to “solve the
problem we created.” What utter nonsense.
North Korea is basically the
same as school yard bully or spoiled child who constantly seeks attention, but
in their case with massive violence and crudeness.
One trait stands out above all others: They are totally unpredictable and very, very dangerous.
Hope you enjoyed your visit today, and as always, thanks
for stopping by.
