Kim Sin-jo, the only operative among the North Korean armed commando unit 'Unit 124' that carried out the so-called '1.21 Incident' aimed at assassinating President Park Chung-hee in 1968, passed away on the 9th. He was 83.
According to the Seoul Seongrak Church, Kim passed away early this morning.
Born in 1942 in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, Kim became a North Korean People's Army officer and was one of the 31 armed commandos infiltrated into the South on January 21, 1968. Their ultimate goal was to assassinate President Park.
The armed commandos belonging to the reconnaissance bureau of North Korea's Ministry of People's Armed Forces 'Unit 124' received orders to raid the Blue House, cutting the military demarcation line's barbed wire and crossing into the South.
They headed towards the Blue House, crossing the frozen Imjin River. After hiding their clothes on the Samobawi rock in Bukhansan, they changed into civilian attire and, concealing weapons in their coats, entered Jahamun Pass on the night of January 21, only to be discovered by a police check due to the emergency duty. They were only 500 meters away from the Blue House.
As a military and police operation was launched to thwart their attempt to enter the Blue House, Kim Sin-jo and his group threw grenades and fired submachine guns in resistance but eventually scattered.
During the anti-infiltration operation, then Jongno Police Chief, the late Choi Kyu-sik, also died in the line of duty.
A joint search to find them was conducted in Gyeonggi Province until the end of January, during which 29 of the 31 members of Unit 124 were killed, and one fled back to North Korea.
Only Kim was captured and defected. A famous anecdote recounts that when asked at a press conference shortly after his capture what his mission was, he replied in a rough tone, "I came to take Park Chung-hee's head."
Although the Blue House raid was a failure, its repercussions on South Korean society were significant. The incident heightened security awareness, leading to the establishment of civilian defense forces and the Army Academy, and resulted in the introduction of military training courses in high schools and universities, contributing to an overall militarization of society.
After Kim Sin-jo, similar cases followed with armed infiltrators like Lee Kwang-soo during the Gangneung semi-submersible infiltrator incident and defector Kim Dong-sik infiltrating into the South but later defecting.
Kim started a new life with his defection, but life in unfamiliar South Korea was not easy.
He struggled with guilt over his colleagues who were killed and family left behind in North Korea, leading him to fall into alcohol, smoking, and gambling for a time.
It was his wife who led him to the path of Christian faith. In 1970, three years after his defection, he married Choi Jeong-hwa, who had been comforting him with letters, and in 1981, he was baptized at Seongrak Church on his wife's suggestion.
In 1989, he founded the Korean Christian Defector Heroes Mission Church and dedicated himself to faith activities, and exactly 29 years after the Blue House raid, he was ordained as a pastor on January 21, 1997.
Invited by the military, Kim delivered security lectures and was appointed as an advisor to the Liberty Korea Party's North Korean Human Rights and Defector Committee in 2010.
Kim served as pastor at Seongrak Sam Bong Church in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, and at Seoul Seongrak Church in Yeongdeungpo-gu, and was reported to have continued his faith activities at church every Sunday until recently.
His funeral is to be held at the Kyowon Yeoum West Seoul Funeral Hall in Yeongdeungpo-gu.