The Korean War Covert Action Links

The March 1, 1946 Plot to Assassinate Kim Il Sung - "And the march began. Kim Il Sung stood up and waved his hands to the marchers. All of a sudden, a young man of 18 or so threw a grenade at Kim Il Sung. The youth was standing right next to the stand. The grenade fell short of its intended target and landed on a stair step to the stand. Lt. Novichenko saw it coming, rushed to the step and picked up the grenade, which exploded in his right hand. The grenade blew up the Soviet officer's right arm and shattered his left arm dangling in blood and broken bones."
Gen. MacArthur and Colonel Geh In Ju - An English abstract of ROKA Col. Geh In Ju's autobiography. Although Col. Geh played major roles - as Korea's intelligence (HID) chief, chief of counter-spy units, chief of police of various key regions, the Korean commander of KLO (Korean Liaisons Office - US intelligence service in Korea in the 40's and 50s) - few historians know about his contributions.
Two Strategic Intelligence Mistakes in Korea, 1950 - P. K. Rose, Directorate of Operations, US CIA - 0n 25 June 1950, the North Korean People’s Army swept across the 38th parallel and came close to uniting the Korean peninsula under the Communist regime of Kim Il-sung. Four months later, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) intervened in massive numbers as American and UN forces pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. US military and civilian leaders were again caught by surprise, and another costly price was paid in American casualties.
A Brief History of South Korean Spy Operations. FEAF/TAG (Far East Air Force Technical Analysis Group) - The Hoyum (??) Unit Alias JACK - Joint Advisory Commission-Korea
UDU - A Super Secret South Korean Navy Spy Unit Unveiled
Spies R Us, 3: More tales from behind the lines UDU - UDU stands for Underwater Demolition Unit: a special ROK undercover body said to have mounted as many as 200 missions into North Korea during the 1950s and 1960s - both on its own, and in tandem with partners who allegedly included the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States and Taiwan.

South Korean Agents Lost In North Korea and Their Families - What are we going to do for them? Although South Korean forces are under the United States command in Korea, South Korea's covert action forces have been operating free of any US control. These units have been used in military coup, suppression of civil disorders and armed conflicts with North Korea (in violation of the armistice of 1953.) South Korea's covert action units were created in 1948 under "HID - Higher Intelligence Department" (fronted as 'Fishery Research Dept') and after 1960, under "AIU - Army Intelligence Unit".
The US has its own covert action units in Korea dating back to 1944, when a US OSS team established a Korean covert-action unit in Chungking, China. The US CIA, Army, Navy and Air Force ran quasi-independent covert-action operations in Korea.
No one knows the exact figure of the Korean agents infiltrated into North Korea. HID/AIU alone have dispatched some 40,000 agents and perhaps, 20,000 by the US operations. The agents were mostly North Korean refugees, POWs, defectors and 'volunteers' from South Korea.
Today, the surviving agents and the families of missing agents are largely forgotten. Their heroic services are being ignored and their sick and hungry go unaided by the ingrateful US and ROK governments. Worse is the case of the agents still missing and unaccounted for. Their families do not know if their sons and husbands are dead or alive in North Korea.
If you have served with a covert action unit in Korea or if you have any information on the MIAs, please contact ysk@kimsoft.com.

Web Resources

Recent Press Coverage

Ex-Korean Spies Demand Official Recognition - Some 200 former spies for Seoul staged a peaceful demonstration in downtown Seoul. At least 500 heavily armed policemen were on hand but there was no clash between the police and the former spies.
The Anti-Communist Heroes of Korea Abandoned by America -- Where is Van Fleet, JR., son of Gen. Van Fleet, shot down in Korea? - Kang In Mo's father was most likely involved in a failed rescue mission (see the link above for Kang's story)
The Tragic Case of Families of the Korean Agents of the US Intelligence Units - At least 3,000 agents presumed killed in North Korea
Must We Continue to Abandon Them to the End? -- The nightmare of the survivors and the families of the Korean agents.
7,726 South Korean Agents Confirmed Lost in North Korea The fact that the United States had expended several thousands of Korean lives with little regard for their human rights has been in the public for some time (see for example
The recent FOIA declassification of CIA documents by Col. Mike Haas has caught the attention of the US and Korean media on the sad fate of the forgotten Korean agents. The CIA documents are cited in his remarkable book: In the Devil's Shadow
The Los Angeles Times : CIA Discloses Korean Spy Records
The Boston Globe : CIA reveals moral cost of behind-the-lines Korean War spying
Sun-Sentinel : CIA calls spying in Korean War `reprehensible'
The Record Online - New Jersey : CIA admits to failures in Korea
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution : CIA files reveal high human cost of Korea spying
The Boston Globe : Declassified data show CIA rued covert operations in Korea
CIA: Korean War spying no success
FOX News : CIA Re-evaluates Korean War Actions
C-News : CIA reveals moral cost of Korean War

US Documents - Archives

US Central Intelligence Agency, Implementation of Soviet Objectives in Korea, Office of Research and Estimates 62 (18 November 1947)
US Central Intelligence Agency, The Current Situation in Korea, Office of Research and Estimates 15-48 (18 March 1948)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Prospect of the Survival of the Republic of Korea, Office of Research and Estimates 44-48 (28 October 1948),
.US Central Intelligence Agency, Communist Capabilities in South Korea. Office of Research and estimates 32-19 (21 February 1949)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Consequences of US Troop Withdrawal From Korea in Spring, 1949. Office of Research and Estimates 3-49 (28 February 1949)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Current Capabilities of the North Korean Regime, Office of Research and Estimates 18-50 (19 June 1950),
US Central Intelligence Agency, Possible Communist Objectives in Proposing a Cease Fire in Korea, Special Estimate 8 (6 July 1951)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Communist Capabilities and Probable Courses of Action in Korea Through Mid-1952. National Intelligence Estimate 55 (7 December 1951).
US Central Intelligence Agency, Military Indications of a Possible large-scale Communist Attack in Korea in the Immediate Future, Special Estimate 25 (28 April 1952)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Communist Capabilities and Probable Courses of Action in Korea. National Intelligence Estimate 80 (3 April 19531)
US Central Intelligence Agency, Probable Communist Reactions to Certain Possible UN/US Military Courses of Action With Respect to the Korean War. Special Estimate 41 (8 April 1953).
CIA Documents - available from Ed Evanhoe
Records of Joint Commands (Record Group 349) 1945-66 401 cu. ft.
Records of the Office of Strategic Services [OSS] (Record Group 226) 1919-48 (bulk 1941-46) 3,973 cu. ft.
Records of the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] (Record Group 263) 1894-1986 (bulk 1947-74) 413 cu. ft.
National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized (Record Group 242) 1675-1983 6,689 cu. ft.

In Memory and Other Publications

SPECIAL OPS (KOREA) REUNION

A Reunion will be held at Panama City Beach, Florida, from 18-22 October, 2000. Veterans of any Sp Ops Unit (8086th AU; 4th Ranger Inf Co (Abn); JACK (CIA); 8007th AU; 8112th AU; 8227th AU (TILO); KLO; 8240th AU; 8282nd AU; 8242nd AU; CCRACK; UNPFK; UNPIK; 6004th AIS; USNSOGK; CCRAFE, 8097th AU; FEC/LG; FEC/LD, etc.) are invited and encouraged to attend this reunion, the first in over 45 years. For further information, please contact Bob Dewey, PO Box 581, Fountain, FL 32438; TelL (850) 722-8397; email 77sfgp@email.msn.com.

Thomas's Personal Military Site -- A son that wanted to follow his father's footsteps but the battle to do so was not easy. Thomas grew up with having to deal with a learning disability in mathematics. Something my father was very good in.
My dad, John Kenneth Anderson, S/SGT US Army, always spoke with pride of the time he served in the CIC in South Korea. He was there in about 1946. Perhaps some of his buddies would be interested to know of his death in April 1994. --- J. Donald Anderson.
Dr. Cline - CIA Korean War Analyst - Dead at 77
N Korean Nationalist Partisans Remembered