A Brief History of South Korean Spy Operations.

FEAF/TAG (Far East Air Force Technical Analysis Group) - The Hoyum (호염) Unit

Alias JACK - Joint Advisory Commission-Korea

During the Korean War, the US CIA's station in Korea was nicknamed JACK. Initially it was located at Dong-rae near Pusan. JACK (FEAF/TAG) consisted of the following:

Headquarters at Dong-rae:

Park Jae Young - a relative of Pres. Park Jung Hee and a former member of the Japanese military police in Manchuria.
Lee Hiang Min - a former member of the Japanese police intelligence and a close associate of Lee Yung Jeh, owner of a pro-Japanese trading company, Mijin Incorporated.

Park and Lee recruited Kim Sung Man, Kin Wha Byok, Choe Bom Sam and scores of others, who went received training at Dong-rae and then moved to an operations camp at Song-do near Pusan. From there, they carried out a number of missions in the West Sea (Yellow Sea). Lion, Shumaker and Broomfield (nicknamed the Pig) were some of the American advisors. The Koreans were commanded by Park Young Jo (a ROKA officer) and Song Jin Suk (signals officer, a ROK police captain). They had several fishing boats equipped each with 2 engines.

#9999 (Secret Dragon 비룡호) - commander Mah Wha Ryong
#8888 (Sea Dragon 해룡호) - commander Kim Sung Man
#7777 (Sea Gull 물오리)
#6666 (Seahorse 해마호) - commander Kim Hah Byok
#5555 (Sea Rang 해랑호) - commander Choe Bong Sam
# k4444 - US advisor Capt. Bowen, radioman Gu Ja Kwang, agent Park Sung Dae
#k3333

Usually a boat had a captain, 2 crew members, 1 commander, 1 engineer, 1 investigator, 5 agents, and 1 Chinese linguis. The number of agents varies from mission to mission. The members a mix of active members of South Korean army, navy, air force and civil service as well as civilians The rank of the unit swelled rapidly in time.

1) A detachment of South Korea's HID (Higher Intelligence Department or sometimes referred to as Headquarters Intelligence Department), made of Kim Gi Du (a Pyongyang Teachers' Academy graduate), Han In Su (a North Korean army defector), Kim Suk Hyon, Doh Jung Soon (a female), Kim Bu Jun (a female) and two others, left the base for a destination in North Korea in March 1951. Their mission was to link up with a South Korean partisan group in the Chun-ma mountains in North Pyongahn Province and to expand covert activities there.

They left Inchon on boats and landed safely near Chulsan, North Korea. However, they failed to find the allege Korean partisans there. To make the matter worse, they lost contact with the base due to an accidental destruction of their radio. They gave up and hit the way back to the base. While searching for a safe path home, they ran into a secret MIG airbase. Commander Kim Gi Du sent the two female agents, Doh and Kim, inside the airbase for a closer look. At the time, neither ROKA nor the UN knew about this well-camouflaged base (this fact is well established in publications). This information later proved to be a bonanza for our side.

They pushed on to the coast and after several days of narrow escapes, managed to reach a beach area adjacent to Yung-dong-do, a small island reachable on foot during low tides.. They were able to move to the island undetected. A Mr. Jung, a resident of the island - his family was later rescued by our agents - bribed a Chinese crab boat captain to smuggle the agents to a safer island, Hoe-do (alias Ho-yum-do). From there, they were ferried to another island, Suk-do. There were stranded on Suk-do without any means of contacting the base or getting provisioned.

Fortunately, a unit from FEAF/TAG base at Song-do, led by Choe Bong Sam, stopped by Suk-do. The unit's mission was to secure Hoe-do and establish a base there. Choe radioed the base informing Kim Gi Du's aborted mission. The base ordered Choe to escort Kim's unit to the base at once. After debriefing, FEAF/TAG verified Kim's report of the secret MIG base via air recon over the base and rewarded Kim's unit for a job well done.

2) In October 1950, 25 members of the South Korean police (one police captain, one police sergeant and 23 policemen) were picked for a special duty. They were bused to a building occupied by the Americans in downtown Taegu. They were given ID tags, a 7x20 cm piece of cloth with a number written on it, and photographed there. Afterwards, they were taken to a ROK air force base and quartered in small tents. After a few days of stay, they boarded a plane marked CAT (a US CIA plane). Just before boarding, their commander, Kim Duk Yong, an ROK air force captain in command of the air force military police, told them to empty their pockets and told me them that they were on their way to Japan for special training. Until then, these ex-policemen had no idea what was going on.

They arrived at Nakajima Aviation Parts Factory near Ohda, Japan. There were a large number of Korean air force already in training. They received instructions on parachuting, radio communication (TR1-1 and TR1-3) for four months. The Korean air force continent of more than 100 was led by Lt. Myong Yi Taek and Sgt. Yun Hyuk Jae. Upon completion of the training, they were split into small units, each consisting of one radioman and 4 agents. Each unit was assigned an operations area in North Korea. They were parachuted to Wonsan, Hyesan, Pyongyang, Jinnampo, Chulsan, Chungjin and other regions.

The Hamhung team (Ham Jung Wu - communications, Kim Suk Jo - radioman, and two agents - Gu Ja Kwang and Cho Sung Il) failed to land due to operational problems. They were housed in a safe-house near Taegu waiting for their next mission. They were arrested by South Korean police and turned over to an American CIC detachment for interrogation. After verifying their identity, they were shipped to the FEAF/TAG base in Pusan, Taewha Hotel in Dongrae (동래 온천장 태화관). Lee Tae Yup and Cho Yun Tae were among the Koreans working at the base. The Hamhung unit stayed at the base for about a month and then reassigned to Song-do.

3) The former members of HID lead by Kim Gi Du and Kim SUk Jo's communication team were merged into a new unit at Song-do, whose mission was to establish an E&E base on the Hoe-do island. Kim Gi Du was appointed the commander, Kim Suk Hyung the deputy commander, Han In Su the operations, Kim Suk Jo communications. On the way to Hoe-do, they stopped by Cho-do to pick up several armed agents from the Jinnampo unit of Yu Duk Sun, Wu Bying Mu and Kim Seh Hyong. The armed agents included Ahn In Chol, Kim Myong Hak, Kang Yong Jeh, Lee Sung Bae, Kim Bong Sun, Whang Hyong Yup, Kang Chang Sun, Park Hung Suk, Park Sung Tae, Kim Jong In, and Kim Yong Su..

3) Kim Gi Du's force of 20 agents arrived safely at Hoe-do and completed their mission of establishing an E&E base on the island. They named their unit the Hoyum Unit after the nickname of the island.

4) Significant Missions of the Hoyum Unit.

Commander Kim Gi Du led a raiding party of 17 men and a fishing boat owned by Ahn Gae Sun of Sowha-do. The ship raided nearby islands - Gah-do, Uhyong-do, Han-do, Woong-do and others - and captured more than 10 North Korean fishing boats and three Chinese boats. They collected and transmitted important intelligence data to the base. Soon their numbers increase to more than one hundreds with anti-Communists North Koreans. Supply ships from the base made sure that they had ample food and supplies to the envy of poor partisans on other islands.
Captured a Chinese supply ship (安海14號), which carried a cargo of morphine, aspirin and other medical supplies for the Communist troops.
Destroyed the enemy supply base at Wang-ga-do. This was verified by air recon.
Cut the undersea cable connecting Dairen (China) and Jinnampo (North Korea), for which each member of the raiding party was given a leather jacket made in Japan.
Sank an enemy freighter, verified by air recon.
The Sinmi-do Campaign: a combined force of Hoe-do and Daewha-do units landed on Sinmi-do and attacked the enemy police station of the island. They killed a number of enemy policemen and captured a large quantity of food, ammo and weapons. They occupied the island for about one week and returned safely to their home islands. Sadly, 10 members of the Hoyum Unit were killed in this campaign.
The Suwun-do and Won-do Campaign: Commander Kim Gi Du led a force of 60 men in five boats and attempted to take Suwun-do and Won-do on a mission to establish bases on the islands. Kim Gi Du and most of his men were killed by the enemy and the=is mission failed. Only seven members and one boat survived.
In November 1951, as the frontline stabilized along the DMZ, the North Korean army began a major campaign to recover North Korean islands, and Hoyum Unit was ordered to a safer base, Paikah-do, for regrouping and training.
A short time later, the Hoyum Unit was ordered to reoccupy its lost base on Hoe-do. Kim Ha Byuk lead a force of 7 men on this mission. They reached the island but the enemy saw them coming and killed all members of the unit.
After Kim Ha Byuk's demise, the Baik-ah-do base was taken over by Park Yong Jo. Some members of this unit were sent to Japan for training and some others were sent to South Korean training centers in Pusan and Kimhae. Commander Park was recalled on a corruption charge and Hong Sun Il took over. The unit was moved to Uh-wha-do.

Photo: Kang Yong Je.

Hong reorganized his units into three detachments, each assigned to a island. The Uhwha-do base had an American advisor Smith, commander Hong Sun Il, deputy Yang Ki Yong and an interpreter Nah Jun Hee. Of the three detachments, Detachment #2 was the most active. Kang Yong Je, a veteran member of the 2nd detachment. acted as the guide for agents and recruited a Mr. Choe, an important agent spying on the Ohngjin airbase. Kang recruited another key agent, a Mr. Jung, who uncovered the HQ of the NKPA 1918th Brigade. The detachment recovered parts of the plane of Gen. Van Fleet's son.
Near the Armistice day, the three detachments were ordered to a base on Sochung-do. Smith was replaced by another American advisor Wales and Yang Gi Young (a former professor at Kim Il Sung University) replaced Hong Sun Il as the commander. Soon after the unit was split up and some members were sent to Mal-do, Daechung-do and Paikryong-do. They were disbanded and discharged in 1956. On December 13, 1953, Kang Yong Je was killed while recovering an agent from North Korea.

The above information was compiled by Kang In Je (son of Kang Yong Je). Kang interviewed the following survivors: Kim Sung Man (commander), Gu Ja Kwang (communications), Ahn In Chul (Detachment #1 commander), Park Sun Dong (Detachment #2 commander). Kim Myong Hak (Detachment #3 commander), and agents - Kim Bu Jun, Yu Dong Wook, Hun Won Chan, Lee Wan Yong, Kim Sang Chun and Lee Soon Oh.