Read Part 6 HERE

In January, a 31-man commando team belonging to Unit 124 crossed the DMZ into South Korea. When the team was soon compromised by a couple of farmers, an intense debate began as to whether or not they should be killed. Amazingly, the North Koreans decided to propagandize the farmers with communist dogma instead of murdering them and then made the farmers promise not to tell the police what they had seen. The farmers blew them off and contacted the authorities.

After initially being dismissive of the farmer’s report, the South Korean and US military began chasing down the infiltrators as they made a bee-line towards Seoul. “There was something about the intensity, focus, and speed of the North Koreans that counter-infiltration units found unsettling,” (Cucullu, 101) as most infiltration teams attacked their targets and headed back to the DMZ but this one seemed to be one a one-way trip to South Korea’s capital. The only target in Seoul that would justify such a suicide mission was President Park.

Outrunning South Korean forces, fighting through sporadic firefights throughout the night, and eventually changing into South Korean military fatigues, the assassination team was able to get within 100-meters of President Park at the Blue House. The North Koreans were compromised at a gate, allegedly because they did not know the challenge and password of the day, and this triggered another firefight. The assassins scattered. Most of them were hunted down and killed over the next few days. One was captured alive and another managed to cross the DMZ back into the North.