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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Yesterday
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Land of the Morning DongChim (Kancho)
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 Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 12:41 pm Post subject: Sth Korean "A Team" Executed - 1972 |
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For all those who loved the movie Silmido -
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Four members of a commando group trained to assassinate former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in the late 1960s were executed at an Air Force unit in Seoul in 1972, according to a former airman on Monday. The fate of the secret commando group is being reexamined thanks to the recent hit movie, ``Silmido,�� named after the island off Inchon where they were trained.
A former Air Force staff sergeant, identified only as Kim, 58, claimed that he led a firing squad that executed the four members of ``Unit 684�� after they were sentenced to death by a military court.
Kim said 12 soldiers were selected as the executioners from a 200-strong Air Force unit in Oryu-dong, Seoul, on March 10, 1972, a day before the execution. He said he ordered the squad to open fire and went on to say that the remains of the commandos were cremated.
He said he was unsure how the ashes were disposed of because he returned to the barracks immediately after verifying the agents were dead.
The secret unit was brought into the spotlight by the recent film ``Silmido,�� which set a box-office record, attracting over 9 million of moviegoers to date.
The movie led the Defense Ministry to admit the existence of the unit early this month.
A military authority also confirmed that the four were executed at the shooting range of the Air Force unit and then cremated in Pyokje, Kyonggi Province. However, there is no record of what was done with the remains, an Air Force official said. |
Poor guys - you would have thought they at least might have received a pardon.... |
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Dan
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Sunny Glendale, CA
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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No idea on this matter, but I do know this one tidbit.
I met a guy who was in the air force, in some highly specialized unit or something.
Anywho, he and a bunch of soldiers were training in Korea, and he was telling me the SK special forces people are insane.
The koreans were doing an exercise where the groupo carry a log on your shoulder and go jogging. anyway, one guy dropped it, causing the rest of the unit to drop the log. so the captain just came up behind him and shot him in the temple.
I mean, kick the poor guy out, don't shoot him for christ sake. |
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rok_the-boat
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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| I once had a student who insisted that he had spent time in NK during his military service. I thought he was daft until I starrted reading about the secret missions etc. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Nothing shocking here. This is inevitable in the military. The British army has plenty of skeletons in it's cupboard. Predictably, when the police try and open those doors, they are blocked. Bullying, executions in the name of a greater good, cover-ups, corruption, cremations, nothing here that hasn't been done in the British army. Even recently. |
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J.B. Clamence
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Why were they executed? |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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| J.B. Clamence wrote: |
| Why were they executed? |
So they couldn't talk ... apparently. Most had allegedly been in jail as "petty criminals" & street gang members.
Just saw the movie last night on DVD ( with English subtitles ). After talking about it with my students & browsing a few articles online, it seems the movie was a LOT closer to the truth than what i thought
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http://www.unc.edu/~wangc/18.htm
No official data exist. But according to lawmakers who have pushed for compensation for the former spies, more than 7,700 men crossed the border on secret missions from 1953 to 1972.
About 5,300 are believed not to have made it back.
The topic is sensitive. This month, the Ministry of Defense made its first public statement on both the Silmido uprising and the movie, saying that five people reported missing in 1968 were among the Silmido recruits.
Brig. Gen. Nam Dae Yeon, the ministry spokesman, said the 31 Silmido recruits made up Unit 684, part of an air force squadron. Seven died in training and 20 were killed in the uprising, General Nam said.
The four who survived were executed after a military trial in 1972.
Documents describing Unit 684's mission no longer exist, General Nam said. But the government has not denied that its mission was to kill Kim Il Sung.
"When we were growing up, we were told that we had to sacrifice for our country," said Jonathan Kim, 43, chief executive of Hanmac Films and a producer of the movie. "Not only physically, but also in the area of human rights. We were told to ignore these things because of the Communist threat. Now we can see what our government did and what was sacrificed."
The movie, based on a magazine article and a book on the subject, could not have been made, Mr. Kim said, until the recent reconciliation between the North and South under the "sunshine policy" of South Korea's former president, Kim Dae Jung.
Before, merely playing a North Korean song in the movie would have caused trouble with the authorities.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=silmido+history+movie |
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lastat06513
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian
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| Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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If you really wanted to see the extent of the controversy, you should have went to Samgakchi awhile ago. A whole bunch of ex-commandos used to stage protests outside the MoD building there, demanding compensation and recognition for what they did.
Shilmido was just an icing on the cake..
Off the subject, yet related.
During the Korean war, the US secretly sent Spec. Ops guys to N.E. China near the N. Korean border to recruit people to spy and do sabotage work on the supply line for the CPLA and the KPLA and I heard it was so successful, that it forced China to make N. Korea to talk concessions during the armistice talks that eventually ended the Korean war.
And when I was assigned to the JSA, a guy from my unit got orders to go to Guangzhou for his next assignment~ He spoke fluent Chinese and Korean.
I wonder what he did  |
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