It is said that in the mid-60s of the last century, encouraged by the battlefield situation in Vietnam, the attacks of North Korean agents on South Korea gradually increased, and the corresponding South Korean side also increased its countermeasures and infiltration into the north, and the landmark significance of this was the incident that occurred on October 14, 1965, when the family of Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo, deputy commander of the 21st Division of the South Korean Army, was wiped out.
Agent of the South Korean army
Born in 1927 in a landowning family in South Hamgyong Province in the northern part of the peninsula, Kim Doo-pyo (김두표) fled to the area south of the 38th parallel in 1947 and joined the right-wing paramilitary group "Patriotic Army" under the influence of land reform and liquidation of Japanese puppets in the north. In 1949, the RPA was forcibly disbanded by the South Korean government, and most of its members joined the Korean National Defense Force, including Kim Doo-pyo, and was awarded the rank of second lieutenant in August 1950.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Kim Doo-pyo made many achievements in the army, and was successively promoted to the captain of the 3rd Brigade of the 10th Wing of the 8th Division of the ROK Army, the training staff officer of the 8th Division, and the chief of staff of the 3rd Army Corps. However, it was not until 1962 that Kim Doo-pyo was promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to the deputy commander of the 65th Regiment of the 21st Division.
The 65th Infantry Regiment (renamed the 65th Infantry Brigade of the ROK Army) was awarded the title of "Baekseoksan Force" for winning the Battle of Baekseoksan in September 1951. Presumably because of the lack of connections and the inability to get a promotion in the short term, Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo simply rented a wooden villa in Hyunri, Pongsan-myeon, Yangkou County, 11 kilometers from the ceasefire line, for his family, a small mountain village of just over 150 residents.
Insignia of the 21st Division and the 65th Regiment
At around 1 a.m. on October 14, 1965, screams, gunshots, and the sound of the fence collapsing suddenly came from the villa of Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo, and Captain Han Hongjun (한홍준), an adjutant of the 65th Regiment who lived next door, immediately rushed over and found Lieutenant Colonel Kim, his wife, two daughters, and two brothers-in-law all lying in a pool of blood, so he immediately reported it to his superiors and the local police. After the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Kim's second daughter Kim Mi-hye and his wife Seo Jung-soon, who were still breathing at the scene, were rushed to Chuncheon Provincial Hospital for rescue, but in the end, Kim Mi-hye also died of her injuries, and Seo Jung-soon was transferred to the First Field Hospital for rescue, and did not wake up until the next night.
At first, the investigators believed that it was a criminal case, but based on the evidence found at the scene, it was revealed that it was an attack by KPA agents. Investigators found four Soviet-made pistol shells in Lieutenant Colonel Kim's room, three pistol rounds on the floor, a Soviet-made dagger in front of the kitchen door, and a North Korean-made backpack and a Soviet-made grenade 1.5 kilometers north of the house, which were the main equipment used by KPA agents.
Based on the traces of activities at the scene, KPA agents should have first broken into the room of Lieutenant Colonel Kim's two daughters, killing two children aged 4 and 6, and then broke into the room of Lieutenant Colonel Kim and his wife, but because of the alarm that Lieutenant Colonel Kim, the two sides quickly scuffled together, and the agent who broke in first was even knocked down by Lieutenant Colonel Kim with a punch during the fight. At this time, two other agents also rushed in and fired four shots at Lieutenant Colonel Kim, who was stabbed twice with a dagger after being shot three times in the body, and finally fell to the ground due to excessive blood loss.
The location of the incident
Lieutenant Colonel Kim's wife, Seo Jung-soon, was also shot in the abdomen in the chaos, and she struggled to run out to call the police, but fell to the ground due to excessive bleeding. At the place where the backpack was found, bloody gauze was also found, and the blood stains on the gauze did not match Lieutenant Colonel Kim's blood type, so it is assumed that during the fight with Lieutenant Colonel Kim, KPA agents were also injured.
Immediately after Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo and his family were attacked by armed men, the ROK Army's central and eastern fronts issued an emergency alert for full alert, but on October 25, the night after the incident, five more KPA agents broke into the dormitory area of the 65th Regiment headquarters in Songhyeon-ri and attempted to assassinate the regiment's commander, Colonel Yoo Jung-hyun (유정현). At around 11:20 p.m. that night, the regimental guards of the 65th Regiment saw five black shadows next to the bathroom behind the toilet of the regiment commander's dormitory.
The KPA agents who were found did not seem to return fire at all, and directly climbed over the oak fence in the backyard behind the regimental quarters and ran to the hill behind the regimental quarters. The guard company of the 65th regiment and the combat support company directly under the regimental headquarters immediately rushed to support when they heard the gunfire and went up the mountain to search under the cover of lights and car headlights, but due to the dense jungle on the mountain, no trace could be found at all. During the day on the third day, the South Korean army searched again by setting fire to the mountain, but still did not find anything. Civilians such as Kang, the driver of the No. 1275 bus in Gangwon Province, and the female owner of the shop, who lived nearby, also witnessed the South Korean army's search for the mountain.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on the incident
The ROK army then searched for KPA agents' possible retreat route to the north, and found new blood stains 1 km south of the ceasefire line, so it is presumed that the KPA agents had crossed the military demarcation line and returned to North Korea. However, some investigators believe that the military demarcation line in this area is tightly sealed, and it is possible that KPA agents may have found that they could not break through the blockade for the time being, so they simply turned around and went back to try to assassinate Colonel Liu again, but the follow-up search did not achieve any results.
After the assassination, Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo was posthumously awarded the rank of colonel of the ROK Army and buried in the No. 2 cemetery of the Army officers at the Dongjak-dong National Cemetery. Considering that he was the highest-ranking officer of the Korean army living in the village of Hyeonri, it is certain that the KPA agents targeted him from the beginning, and even made precise steps in advance, so that they were so familiar with the layout of the house and the route of the attack. But why did the North Korean side regard Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo as a thorn in its side, and even did not hesitate to send agents to kill his entire family? Since the murderer in this case has never been caught, this will probably become an eternal mystery.
After the incident in which Lieutenant Colonel Kim Doo-pyo's entire family was killed, then South Korean President Park Chung-hee reacted strongly to this and ordered all front-line units to set up elite special combat teams for counter-infiltration operations against the KPA.