Today in History - January 21: Crack team of North Korea commandos came desperately close to assassination
A crack team of North Korean commandos came close to assassinating South Korean President Park Chung Hee on January 21, 1968.
A 31-man squad of Unit 124 spent two years training for the daring raid on the president's residence, the Blue House in Seoul.
The group crossed the border several days earlier and made their way to the capital dressed in South Korean military uniforms.
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North Korean troops carried out a drill on a replica Blue House in this 2016 photo. Rodong Sinmun
But a suspicious police chief approached them 100 metres from the Blue House and began asking them questions.
Unsatisfied, the chief pulled out his pistol and a firefight broke out.
Despite their intense training, the squad dispersed after a few minutes and began a desperate journey back across the border.
Only one soldier made it back to North Korea. Another was captured, and the remaining 29 were killed or committed suicide.
The captured soldier, Kim Shin-jo, was deeply unhappy with how the operation had unfolded and decided to surrender.
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After being detained for a year, Kim became a South Korean citizen. When news of his defection reached North Korea, his parents were executed.
He later became a pastor and died last year.
There were 26 South Korean fatalities from the raid, as well as four American soldiers.
The two Koreas had been in an uneasy ceasefire since the unofficial end of the Korean War in 1953.
But North Korean leadership launched the Blue House raid because they believed South Korea would not be in a position to restart the war.
This was because most of South Korea's allies, including the USA and Australia, had their hands full in Vietnam.
They were right. The Tet Offensive in Vietnam a few days later rattled the US and led to a major surge in troops.
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A unit of soldiers specially trained to assassinate North Korea's dictator met a violent end after a mutiny. Supplied
Instead Park ordered a special group of soldiers to sneak north across the border to kill dictator Kim Il-Sung.
The squad, also of 31 men, consisted of petty criminals and ne'er-do-wells viewed by the government as disposable.
Over the course of three years they were put through brutal training to turn them into fearless super-soldiers.
In that time, seven of Unit 684 were executed for breaking the rules.
Eventually the group snapped. The recruits mutinied, killed 18 of their guards and escaped.
They reached the mainland and hijacked a bus. But in a shootout with soldiers, 20 were killed.
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The mutiny of Unit 684 met a bloody end. Supplied
The remaining four were later executed.
The operation was called off.
Park would later be murdered by the chief of his intelligence service in 1979.
The incident was regarded as a failed coup attempt.
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