Nuclear security
North
Korea Planned Attacks on US Nuclear Plants
Five commando units
trained for strikes, sabotage
N. Korean leader Kim
Jong Un at parliament session / AP
North Korea dispatched covert commando
teams to the United States in the 1990s to attack nuclear power plants and
major cities in a conflict, according to a declassified Defense Intelligence
Agency report.
The DIA report, dated Sept.
13, 2004, reveals that five units of covert commandos were trained for the
attacks inside the country.
According to the report, the
“Reconnaissance Bureau, North Korea, had agents in place to attack American
nuclear power plants.”
The document states that the North
Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, the ministry in charge of the
military, “established five liaison offices in the early 1990s, to train and
infiltrate operatives into the United States to attack nuclear power plants and
major cities in case of hostilities.”
“One of the driving forces behind the
establishment of the units and infiltration of operatives was the slow progress
in developing a multi-stage ballistic missile.”
North Korea is known to have at least
two long-range missiles capable of hitting the United States, the Taepodong-2
intercontinental ballistic missile, and the KN-08 road-mobile ICBM, which has
not yet been flight tested.
The report indicates that power plants
would be targeted for attack “in the event of hostilities between the United
States and DPRK” – the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of North
Korea.
The Reconnaissance Bureau is part of the
Ministry of People’s Armed Forces and is in charge of the estimated 60,000
North Korean special operations commandos.
The heavily redacted report is what is
known as a raw intelligence report, consisting of information possibly provided
to the United States by a defector or agent, or possibly obtained from
electronic surveillance.
Reconnaissance Bureau commandos have
undertaken terrorist operations in the past in South Korea and other locations.
But the DIA report is the first
intelligence document indicating North Korea had planned attacks inside the
United States and dispatched agents for the operations.
Disclosure of the report, obtained under
the Freedom of Information Act, comes amid threats by presumed North Korean
agents to conduct September 11-style terrorist attacks against U.S. movie
theaters.
The threats coincided with efforts by
North Korea to prevent the showing Dec. 25 of the Sony Pictures film “The
Interview,” a comedy involving a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un.
The U.S. government determined that the
massive hack targeting against Sony, which stole an estimated 100
terabytes of data including unreleased films, has been determined to be the
work of North Korean hackers or those working for the regime of Kim Jong Un.
S.Y. Lee, a Department Homeland Security
spokesman, declined to comment on the 2004 document.
A DHS official said the department is
aware of the threat to attack movie theaters.
“We are still analyzing the credibility
of these statements, but at this time there is no credible intelligence to
indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States,” the
official said.
The official said DHS will adjust its
security procedures to protect Americans.
“This includes continued, regular
information sharing with our state, local, federal and international partners,
builds on ongoing work, such as enhanced protection at federal facilities,” the
official said, adding that the public is encouraged to report suspicious
activity to law enforcement agencies.
The FBI, in response to a Freedom of
Information Act request, said it was unaware of the DIA intelligence report on
North Korean commando teams. In a July 9, 2012 letter, the FBI stated that it
was unable to find any file records on North Korea’s Reconnaissance
Bureau.
An FBI spokesman had no immediate
comment. A DIA spokesman did not return emails seeking comment on the
documents.
A second DIA document reveals that an
American defector identified only as “Jackson” and as a former Air
Force officer was working inside North Korea for the Reconnaissance Bureau.
The 1998 document stated that the
officer had been “captured by North Korea” and was teaching North Koreans “U.S.
Special Forces tactics, English [language], and interrogation techniques as
chief of psychological operations studies at Madonghui Military College to
North Korean seaborne snipers.”
The American also “visited the
52nd Seaborne Sniper Battalion to teach U.S. Special Forces tactics,
American English, and interrogation techniques since before 1983,” the report
said, noting that the training was carried out under the Reconnaissance Bureau.
The reference to “American English” is
an indication the training may have been preparation for the future dispatch of
North Korean snipers to the United States.
Mark Sauter, a security adviser to
corporations and long-time North Korea watcher said the documents clearly raise
alarms about whether North Korea could follow through on threats to conduct
9/11-style terrorist attacks.
“What they’ve done by the Sony hack is
shown they’re certainly willing to attack a U.S. corporation,” said Sauter, who
obtained the documents. “Now they’re threating a physical attack along the
lines of 9/11 and it is certainly possible they could have agents inside the
United States capable of carrying out terrorist attacks.”
“North Korean agents have committed
terrorist attacks and kidnappings around the world,” said Sauter, a former
Special Forces and infantry officer. “Why wouldn’t they send agents to the
homeland of their biggest enemy?”
Sauter noted that it took the U.S.
government weeks to determine that North Korea was capable of hacking a major
company. “It would be a mistake for the government now to assume North Korea is
not capable of launching a terrorist attack in the U.S.,” he said. “They may or
may not have the desire to attack the U.S. homeland now or in the future, but
there’s a good chance they have at least some capability.”
Bill Cowan, a former Army Special Forces
officer, agreed and called the document an alarming disclosure.
“This demonstrates the North Koreans
have capabilities most of us didn’t realize they had,” Cowan said. “It talks
about them being on U.S. soil to carry out attacks and that takes the threat to
a whole new level. And they’re probably still here.”
Past Reconnaissance Bureau operations
included the bombing in Rangoon, Burma in 1983 in an attempt to kill then-South
Korean President Chun Do-hwan. Three senior South Korean government ministers
were killed in the attack.
Bureau commandos also carried out the
attack on South Korea’s presidential Blue House in 1968 in an attempt to
assassinate then-President Park Chung Hee, father of current South Korean
President Park Geun-hye.
The Reconnaissance Bureau also is in
charge of covert operations to infiltrate South Korea through tunnels and
seaborne insertion of intelligence personnel.
North Korean intelligence activities in
the United States have been limited.
In 2003, the FBI arrested
Korean-American businessman John Joungwoong Yai, who was identified as a North
Korean agent. He pleaded guilty to financial charges and served two years in
prison.
Yai was paid for sending reports to
North Korea through China based on publicly available sources. He had been
tasked by North Korean officials to locate a North Korean agent who had
defected.
Documents in the case revealed plans by North Korea to try and plant one
of its agents inside the U.S. government.
Source: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/dia-north-korea-planned-attacks-on-us-nuclear-plants/
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