A History of North Korean Misadventures
On October 9, 1983, a large delegation of senior South Korean government officials assembled at a mausoleum across the street from Burma’s gleaming Shwedagon Pagoda, located in what was then the city of Rangoon. They were in Burma for a state visit, and had come to the pagoda for a wreath-laying ceremony to honor several Burmese independence leaders assassinated by political opponents in 1947. South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, who led a repressive and unpopular government back home, was also slated to attend, but was running late.
Shortly after most of the delegation had assembled, a remote-controlled bomb exploded at the mausoleum site, killing 17 South Koreans, four of them cabinet members, along with four Burmese nationals. Dozens more were injured. Later, it would become clear that Chun was the target of the attack; his tardiness saved his life.
Burmese authorities soon cornered three suspects in Rangoon, today known as Yangon, shooting and killing the first and capturing two others. According to a CIA on the attack declassified in 2000, investigators recovered communication devices, grenades, and candy bars from the attackers, who they identified as “ethnic Koreans.” Details of the attack, including the use of a three-man team, were consistent with North Korean operations, the CIA said. Burma publicly blamed North Korea, and a local court sentenced the surviving attackers to death. One of them, Captain Kang Min-chul, confessed
