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BBC International Reports (Asia)
November 3, 2005

Former South Korean spy's book reveal covert operations in North
Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 3 November: For most of his neighbours, Kim Dong-suk, 82, was just
one stubborn-looking man walking with a cane until he published a memoir
last week revealing what he did during the Korean War as a South Korean spy.
As the commander of a South Korean counter-intelligence military unit,
called HID, Kim claims in the book that he led some 260 covert infiltration
and espionage missions in North Korea during the three-year war which ended
in 1953.
In a recent interview at his home in southern Seoul, Kim said his missions
in North Korea ranged from assassinating and kidnapping communist leaders to
collecting intelligence.
"In terms of spy activities, I'm sure I was the best," Kim said as a
matter-of-fact. "I infiltrated the enemy lines about 260 times by either
parachuting from planes or sailing by boat."
His book, titled "This man, Kim Dong-suk," revealed some untold Korean War
episodes such as the kidnapping of a top North Korean military officer and
an assassination attempt on the then North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung,
father of current leader Kim Jong-il.
The book derives its title from a statement reportedly made by US Gen.
Douglas MacArthur - who led the 16-nation UN forces during the Korean War -
to express his appreciation about Kim's successive outstanding intelligence
reports: "This man again?"
"One day in October 1952, Gen. MacArthur asked me what I have done about
Maj. Gen. Dean who was still captive in the North," Kim recalled, referring
to William F. Dean, the commander of the 24th US Infantry Division who was
taken prisoner by North Koreans during the war in August 1950.
Dean, the highest-ranking Allied prisoner of war in the war, was set free
by North Korea in September 1953, two months after the war ended in a
cease-fire.
A few days after MacArthur's personal comment on Dean, Kim said he, along
with four fellow agents, infiltrated into eastern North Korea and captured
Ri Young-hee, the commanding general of the North's 17th army division. It
is the first time that the abduction of a general-grade North Korean officer
during the war has been unveiled.
"I took him to the US military. It took only 15 minutes for them to force
Ri to squeal everything," Kim said. "Soon afterwards, Ri's division suffered
massive aerial bombardment."
In 1952, Kim said, his team was sent to the North again on a mission to
intercept the communist country's leader, Kim Il-sung, who US intelligence
said appeared at a beach near the North's eastern port of Wonsan.
"When I got there with my men, he wasn't there, and we only found Russian
filter-tipped cigarette butts abandoned on the sands which were still warm,"
Kim recalled. "I guessed if we had arrived four minutes earlier, we could
have done away with him."
Kim said he came close to death several times.
"You see, this is where a bullet got in and this is where the bullet got
out," Kim said, showing gunshot wounds on his belly. "If you're fearful of
death, you can't do this kind of job."
Kim said he received "special treatment" from MacArthur.
"Whenever I flew to the Allied Forces command in Okinawa, Gen. MacArthur
came out of his office to welcome me," Kim said, showing MacArthur's hamlet
and baton that he said he was given by the American general as gifts.
Kim also recalled a meeting with MacArthur at a Tokyo hotel.
"Shortly after I knocked on his room, he came out, wearing only pyjamas.
Behind him, I saw a famous Japanese actress, Hara Setsuko," Kim said with a
smile.
Kim lamented a boisterous demand by a small but vocal group of South Korean
leftists to dismantle a MacArthur statue at a park in Incheon, saying, "They
don't know what kind of a general MacArthur was. He was such a great
general."
Born in Russia's Maritime Province in 1923, Kim joined a volunteer
para-military unit affiliated with Chinese Chang Kai-shek's Kuomintang
(Nationalist Party) in the eastern Chinese city of Harbin in 1946.
At the time, Kim said he encountered a future South Korean president, Pak
Chong-hui, who was trying to return to his home in what is now South Korea
after serving as an officer in the Japanese army, and his comrade Chung
Il-kwon, who later became Park's prime minister.
Kim said the two were captured by Soviet troops stationed in Harbin but
could manage to leave the city undetected with his help.
Fifteen years later in 1961, Park, then a major general in the South Korean
Army, seized power in a coup and ruled South Korea until he was assassinated
by his disgruntled intelligence chief, Kim Jae-kyu, during a drinking party
in 1979.
Kim himself managed to be back home in South Korea in 1946 and joined the
Military Academy two years later. During the Korean War, Kim was stationed
mostly on South Korea's east coast, heading a counter-intelligence unit.
Kim's heroic activities during the war were rewarded decades later.
On 16 December 2000, the US government cited Kim as one of "four Korean War
heroes," along with Gens MacArthur, Matthew Ridgway who headed the 8th US
Army and Paik Sun-yup, former South Korean Army chief of staff.
The 2nd US Infantry Division in South Korea subsequently designated 16
December as "Governor Kim's Day." Kim was once appointed by the South Korean
government to serve as a nominal governor of a North Korean province, a
symbolic move by Seoul to promote its unification drive.
Kim "has been a hero in his passionate resistance to communist aggression;
a lifelong patriot of the Korean people; a faithful friend of America and
her soldiers deployed to the Republic of Korea," the US division said in an
acknowledgment on Kim's Day.
In 2002, the US division built a memorial hall in memory of Kim.
Kim received a total of 28 medals, including four from the US - two US
leadership medals, one US Bronze Star Medal and one from the secretary of
defence.
"I still have lots of top confidential intelligence which were not
mentioned in the memoir," Kim said. "I am preparing for a sequel of the
memoir and I will reveal more untold stories."

US Federal News
November 2, 2005

ARE AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR STILL ALIVE?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 -- Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas (14th CD), issued the
following press release:
Decades after the conclusion of wars in Korea and Vietnam, are American
prisoners of war still alive? This is the question explored in a provocative
new Documentary entitled Missing, Presumed Dead; The Search for America's
POWs.
Documentary filmmaker Bill Dumas, whose uncle Roger Dumas has been missing
in Korea since the 1950s, visited Washington last week to screen the film
and garner support for the creation of a congressional committee to
investigate cases of missing servicemen. The ultimate message of the film is
very simple: the best way to support our troops is to make sure each and
every one of them comes home.
The documentary has received support from many groups, including Rolling
Thunder; Task Force Omega; Korea/Cold War Families of the Missing; National
Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen; and
VietNow.
Congressman Paul's office held a screening of the documentary last week for
members of Congress and their staffs, and copies of the film (donated by
veterans groups) were provided to every House and Senate office.
Paul issued a brief statement in support of the film, urging his colleagues
to co-sponsor H. Res. 123. H. Res. 123, introduced by Representative Peter
King of New York, would establish a select committee on POW and MIA affairs.
Paul stated that "Establishment of this select committee is long overdue,
and Congress must not ignore its obligations any longer."

AP Online
November 5, 2005

Missing Soldier's Family Gets Update
By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON_Carolyn and Keith Maupin walked into the Pentagon Friday hoping
for any new bits of information about their son, who was captured by
insurgents near Baghdad more than 18 months ago.
They left after more than two hours, saying defense officials assured them
the military is continuing to search for Army Reserve Sgt. Keith "Matt"
Maupin. But they got no definitive answer to the question that haunts them
most: Is he still alive?
"Even though you see a smile, your heart still aches," Carolyn Maupin told a
reporter after the meeting, as she and her husband visited the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial, both wearing pins bearing a photo of their son.
Surrounded by journalists and escorted by two Army officials, Keith Maupin _
wearing a POW-MIA hat _ said he believes "they'll find something soon.
They'll find him." He said he and his wife went to the somber Vietnam Wall
because, "There are 50,000 names on that wall, and I just wanted to say
thanks."
The Maupins met with Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, the Director of the Army
Staff, as well as officials from the Casualty Assistance Office and the
Joint Personnel Recovery Office. They also had a video conference call with
senior officers in Iraq, including officials from U.S. Central Command.
Asked whether they learned anything new, they said nothing.
"We will not discuss the specifics of the update because it is an ongoing
operation and saying anything could be detrimental to Matt's safe return and
the safety of those involved in the search," they said in a written
statement.
The statement continued, "It has been more than 18 months since he was
captured, and we pray every day for him and the soldiers who continue to
search for him. We ask the American people to do the same."
Army officials said Friday that Sgt. Maupin's status remains unchanged, and
he is still considered captured. He is the only soldier who is missing or
currently considered captured in the Iraq War.
The officials who met with the Maupins were expected to provide the family
with more details of the ongoing search for their son, including reports
that a Fort Drum, N.Y.-based Army unit spent seven hours Saturday searching
for his body in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad.
The Batavia, Ohio, soldier has been missing since April 9, 2004, when his
fuel truck convoy was ambushed by insurgents west of Baghdad after leaving
camp. He was 20 at the time.
A week later, Arab television network Al-Jazeera released a videotape
showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding
automatic rifles.
That June, Al-Jazeera released another tape purporting to show a U.S.
soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the
victim's head and did not show the actual shooting. The Army ruled it was
inconclusive.
The Maupins said Friday's meeting _ which also included a private lunch in
the Pentagon _ was helpful, and showed the Army is following leads on their
son's whereabouts.
And it seems other Ohio residents are also following the progress. As the
Maupins walked near the Vietnam Memorial, they were greeted by Jeffrey and
Courtney Neal, who were visiting Washington, D.C., from Harrison, Ohio.
"We're praying for you guys, hang in there," Jeffrey Neal told the Maupins,
as the couples embraced.

Sincerely,

> Jay Veith
>
> jay.veith@thomson.com
>
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