Blue House raid

The Blue House raid, also known in South Korea as the January 21 Incident (Korean: 1·21 사태), was a raid launched by North Korean commandos in an attempt to assassinate President of South Korea Park Chung Hee in his residence at the Blue House in Seoul, on January 21, 1968. A 31-man team of the Korean People's Army (KPA) infiltrated the DMZ but was intercepted by police near the presidential residence. In the ensuing pursuit, all but two commandos were killed; one was captured (Kim Shin-jo), and one (Pak Jae-gyong) fled back to North Korea. South Korean casualties totaled 26 killed and 66 wounded, including about 24 civilians; four Americans also were killed. Park was unharmed.

Background

Park Chung Hee seized power in a 1961 coup d'état and ruled as a military strongman until his election and inauguration as the President of South Korea in 1963. The attack at the Blue House took place in the context of the Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–69), which in turn was influenced by the Vietnam War.

Following the 1967 South Korean presidential election and the legislative election, the North Korean leadership concluded that Park's domestic opposition no longer constituted a serious challenge to his rule.

In July 1967, a special squad of the recently established Unit 124 of the Korean People's Army (KPA) was entrusted with the task of assassinating Park. This decision was probably facilitated by the fact that in 1967, the Vietnam War entered a new stage of escalation, and American military forces, preoccupied as they were with Vietnam, could not easily take retaliatory measures against North Korea. In 1965–1968, North Korea–North Vietnam relations were very close, and North Korea provided substantial military and economic assistance to North Vietnam.