Since ancient times, humans have had the tradition of using prisoners to serve as soldiers.
For example, during the Qin Dynasty , after the death of the First Emperor, the world was in chaos, and the Qin army was in the north and the south, and the Central Plains were empty. Qin generals Chapter Handan had to send Mount Li to the army, and actually successfully wiped out most of the rebels, including the well-known Zhang Chu regime.
Since the Song Dynasty, criminals were not sentenced to death and were "tattooed as soldiers". Many of the heroes of Liangshan were prisoners who were exiled as soldiers.
Until modern times, because the recruitment standards of modern army were increased, and unless the war reached a fever pitch, no one was available, and prisoners would generally not be found to serve in the army.
However, in the mid-20th century, Koreans with relatively jumpy thinking actually trained a special forces, some of which were criminals, trained with soldiers to carry out the decapitation operation that must be killed - assassination of Kim Il-sung.
However, Black humor is that this secret force did not set foot on North Korea's land, but instead rushed to the South Korean capital Seoul to assassinate its own president Park Chung-hee .
This assassination was the "823 incident" that shocked South Korea. On that day, this special forces exchanged fire with the South Korean military and police on the streets of Seoul, and finally all the people committed suicide.
Because the prisoners' soldiers came from " solid-tail island ", this incident is also called " solid-tail island event ", which is the worst military mutiny incident in South Korean history.
So half a century ago, why did South Korea secretly train the assassination troops on Shiwei Island? Why do these soldiers rebel? What other mysteries are there in them?
1. In order to avenge the north, South Korea came up with an unreliable plan
After North Korea and South Korea split , the early development of the two countries was one in the sky and the other underground.
Highlights in the early days of the Cold War, North Korea was a hot commodity in the socialist world. The Soviet Union was determined to build North Korea into a socialist model and publicize the superiority of socialism to the whole world.
html In the 160s, the Soviet Union supported to North Korea's counterpart , allowing North Korea to develop rapidly and has entered the ranks of more developed countries in the world. South Korea in the south is poor and weak, and has no industrial foundation and only relies on agriculture and small workshop-style light industry systems to maintain the country.
Supported by national strength and national confidence, North Korea adopted a positive offensive attitude towards South Korea in the 1960s, often sending agents and even soldiers to infiltrate South Korea to engage in intelligence and sabotage, and strive to disintegrate the South Korean regime.
1968, Kim Il-sung even sent 31 soldiers from the North Korean "124th Unit of the Investigation Bureau of the People's Army" to infiltrate through the demilitarized zone of the North Korea-South Korea border and sneak into Seoul to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. During the operation of
, these assassins successfully entered Seoul and even rushed to the vicinity of the Presidential Palace " Blue House ", but in the end, because their shoes were exposed, they were intercepted and annihilated by the South Korean military and police forces.
In the end, only one out of the 31 assassins fled back to North Korea, one of the remaining 30 people was captured, and the remaining 29 were shot dead.
This incident shows that the South Korean army is still very combat-effective in the core department, but it also exposes South Korea's weakness in the competitive situation.
However, at that time, the north-south confrontation between the people on the Korean Peninsula was very serious, and the Korean people were shouting revenge, which even triggered a parade. Park Chung-hee felt that "the people's hearts are available", so she ordered revenge to the north. Once things were done, her status would be greatly improved.
So, Park Chung-hee secretly gave the order to the Ministry of National Defense to train an assassination force, with a number of 31 people. He should also treat the person with his own way and carry out a "beheading" operation on Kim Il-sung.
But what is different from North Korea and South Korea is that it is almost impossible for soldiers to pass through the demilitarized zone. Therefore, the South Korean assassination troops cannot walk over, at least they must take a plane.
Soon, the South Korean Ministry of Defense formulated a rough plan, and decided to enter North Korea in a hot air balloon.When they arrived over Pyongyang , the capital of North Korea, , the soldiers jumped off the hot air balloon and sneaked into the center of Pyongyang to assassinate Kim Il-sung.
This plan sounds unreliable, not to mention where Kim Il-sung’s specific location is, it is difficult to reach the sky just by sneaking into Kim Il-sung’s residence from Pyongyang City.
Pingyang security is very tight. There are almost no idle people walking around on the street. There are still a large number of plainclothes lurking. A group of strangers walking on the street with weapons, basically killing them.
But the president's order came down, and the Ministry of Defense could not do it, so a group of people wanted to remove black hat . In the end, this unreliable tactical plan was approved.
In order to solve the problem of getting lost in Pyongyang City, the South Korean Ministry of Defense decided to find a group of "northern people", preferably those who have lived in Pyongyang, to perform this task.
2. Dead soldiers who came out of Hell of Shiwei Island
After some efforts, the South Korean military really found 93 "dead soldiers" and sent them to Shiwei Island, Xianjia Island and Changfeng Island for training. Because it was April 1968, this army was also called "84 Force ".
These 93 people are divided into three groups, with 31 people in one team, because the 31 assassins who assassinated Park Chung-hee. Three groups of people train separately. Whoever trains the most successful will be sent to perform the assassination mission, and those who fail will be assigned to the Korean spy organization for investigation.
Among the three groups of people, a group of soldiers from Shiwei Island trained the best, but ended up the worst.
In the 2003 Korean movie "Shiwei Island", the 31 dead soldiers in the "684 Force" were all serious prisoners and were originally death row prisoners, so they were summoned to do this thing that must be dying and contribute to the country again before they die.
Of course, this setting is different from history.
In the real "Eleven 684", only about half of the people were prisoners, and they were not death row prisoners , but just ordinary criminals. They either thieved or cheated.
The remaining half is some ordinary young people who are lured by the military with generous rewards, and some are agents and members of the South Korean army.
All of these people have something in common, they are all from the north, and have been to Pyongyang, or they are from Pyongyang themselves. But you have to know that it is not easy to find these people in South Korea, so the military and the prisoners combined to make up the number.
1 Starting from April 1968, the Shioshima military base began hell-style death special training. This "death" is not an exaggeration, but a fact, because after that, the seven people were "trained to death" alive in harsh training.
military base is not big, and it is closed to the outside world. The instructor here is a Korean front-line soldier who came back from the Vietnam battlefield and killed people with his own hands.
During the training, the instructors cruelly treated the soldiers of the "Eleven 684" and not only beat their bodies, but also tortured their spirits.
The soldiers have to train running, swimming, diving, shooting, blasting, and fighting. The training volume of each item pushes the human body to its limit, and some soldiers die from overwork.
In addition to proficient combat skills, the "684 Unit" also needs to learn to recite books from the north and learn Kim Il-sung's thoughts. It must be "northernized" from within to avoid being seen.
It is worth noting that an interesting thing happened at that time: because the Shiwei Island was completely closed, after these soldiers joined the "684 Force", their relatives reported the case to the police for disappearance.
From 1968 to 1971, these dead soldiers received three years of high-intensity training and were waiting for the day to go out, but this day was nowhere to be achieved.
At the beginning, the South Korean Ministry of Defense planned to go north in one year.
But man's calculations are not as good as God's calculations. The South Korean government gradually gave up this almost impossible action because in the fall of 1968, the two countries had a fierce border conflict and almost started a full-scale war, which scared the United States to warn South Korea to "not stimulate North Korea."
Park Chung-hee did not order the disbandment of Sei-wei Island's troops in order not to go back on her word, but the Ministry of National Defense knew that this assassination might turn into a bubble.
However, the soldiers on Shiwei Island were completely unaware of it. They were continuing to train, while the soldiers on Xianjia Island and Changfeng Island had already been transferred to be spies, and they were killed and injured in the mission.
The soldiers on the real-tail island persisted for 3 years under the special training in hell, and their spirit and physical strength reached their limits. Moreover, because the project was cancelled, their treatment was also poor, their food was getting worse and worse, and their allowances were reduced, and the soldiers complained a lot.
3. No one survived. Park Chung-hee intends to destroy the traces?
1 In early 971, several soldiers on the island were exhausted to death. The soldiers had reached their limits, and the anger that had been aggravated for a long time was about to burst out.
On August 23, 1971, a premeditated rebellion occurred on Shiwei Island. 24 "Unit 684" soldiers took away their weapons, shot and killed the instructors on the island, and then seized the ship and fled to the South Korean mainland.
They got ashore from Incheon , robbed the bus, and drove to the Blue House, hoping to seek "justice".
These soldiers are determined to die. They have hatred. According to the description of the movie "Shiwei Island", it was Park Chung-hee who ordered all the soldiers who were death row prisoners to be executed, which led to the uprising of the soldiers.
But in real history, the Korean government has never issued such an order, at least no one has admitted it.
According to the hostages who were later hijacked in the bus, the "684 Army" did not act in an attempt to perpetrate the car.
As for the fire exchange, it was because it was discovered by police on the road during driving, and the South Korean military and police opened fire first.
In the battle, the 24 soldiers forced their way downstairs of "Liu Han Foreign Travel" in the southern part of Seoul Yongdepo . The Korean military and police surrounded them, and the two sides started a gunfight, and many people in the car were injured.
Finally, at the end of the desperate situation, the soldiers of Shiwei Island chose to pull the grenade to commit suicide, and 20 people died on the spot.
The remaining 4 survivors were rescued by the South Korean military and sentenced to death for treason and assassination of the leader, and were uniformly executed in March 1972.
This incident did not cause much splash in the 1970s, because it was the most chaotic time in the world, and various coups, assassinations, and terrorist attacks emerged one after another. South Korea classified this incident as a "soldier mutiny" and quickly suppressed it.
Until decades later, the story of Shiwei Island was digging deeper and deeper under the excavation of the families of the victims. The tragic situation of the soldiers aroused social sympathy and eventually attracted the attention of the Korean literary and artistic circles.
In 2003, this story was made into a movie with added fuel and fire, becoming a classic work in the history of Korean film.
Speaking of which, the soldiers on Shiwei Island are all the lowest class of society and even people who are hated by people in life. However, after choosing to sacrifice for the country, they are betrayed by the government. This tragic story itself is easy for all the listeners to sigh.
As for what nature of this real-tail island incident belongs to , there is debate even in South Korea.
Because South Korean government documents show that the government did not order their execution, the soldiers were defined as mutiny. Some people think that the South Korean government concealed the truth, but this is not aware of South Korean history.
Back then was the dictatorial period of Park Chung-hee. This person was a villain in the eyes of later Koreans. There was no need for the government to hide anything for Park Chung-hee, so the failure to order the execution should be the real situation.
There are also materials that show that there may be more than 20 people on the island at that time, and many soldiers did not participate in the riot, but were killed by these 24 people before the incident, which shows that they had eliminated their dissidents in advance before the action.
Contact the experiences of these soldiers on the island that they were gradually abandoned and neglected by the state before the incident, perhaps the truth can slowly surface.
Perhaps, these soldiers embarked on this path of no return because of their long-term training but failed tasks, and the pain of being deceived and neglected by the country.
Text/Business Wild
Reference materials:
1, "The Riot of the Soul Island: The Unsuccessful Rebellion of Kim Il-sung" Liu Huoxiong
2, "The Soul Island"--A Biological Sample of a Korean Movie" Zhong Weijia
