North Korea uses human kamikaze torpedoes to sink South Korean ship
The Japanese used aerial kamikaze during the Second World War in their war against the allies’ navies; it now appears that the North Koreans have embarked on a naval kamikaze tactics in its clandestine campaign against the South Korean navy and merchant marine. Not all the details are in, but here is what we know: a dozen or so North Korean special forces blew themselves up next to a South Koran ship, killing 46 of its 106 crew; the North Korean commandos approached the South Korean ship inside a midget submarine, and then blew themselves and the mini-sub when it neared the hull of the bigger ship; it is not clear yet whether the commandos activated the explosives, or whether the explosive was set off by a timer
South Korean military intelligence reports say a South Korean warship was destroyed by an elite North Korean suicide squad of “human torpedoes” on the express orders of the regime’s leader, Kim Jong-il.
The attack on the 1,220-ton Cheonan, which sank on 26 March with the loss of 46 of its 104 crew, was carried out in retaliation for a skirmish between warships of the two nations’ navies in November of last year, South Korea claims.
The South Korean government has refused to comment officially on the reports but Defense Minister Kim Tae Young told a parliamentary session that the military believed that the sinking was a deliberate act by North Korea.
The Telegraph’s Julian Ryall reports from Tokyo that officials in military intelligence say they warned the government earlier this year that North Korea was preparing a suicide-squad submarine attack on a South Korean ship. “Military intelligence made the report to the Blue House [the presidential office] and to the Defense Ministry immediately after the sinking of the Cheonan that it was clearly the work of North Korea’s military,” a military source said. “North Korean submarines are all armed with heavy torpedoes with 200kg warheads,” the source said.
Experts who examined the ship, which sank in the Yellow Sea, say that the blast happened outside the vessel’s hull, ruling out the possibility of an accident.
Ryall writes that North Korean officials who have defected to South Korea but still have contact with North Korean military sources say they have been told that the attack was carried out on the orders of Kim and involved a unit of thirteen specially trained commandos and modified midget submarines. The submarines were maneuvered close to their target before being detonated, probably along with their crews. Alternatively, the attackers may have used timed charges.
If North Korea was behind the attack, it would be the bloodiest single incident since an uneasy truce brought the Korean War to an end in 1953. Analysts say it also leaves Lee Myung Bak, the South Korean president, with a decision to make on retaliation or ignoring the provocation.
Ryall quotes Aidan Foster-Carter, an expert on Korean affairs at Leeds University, to say that “This puts Lee in a very difficult situation, but I do not think that an Israeli-style, targeted response is likely,” said. “That is because the United States won’t have it and there is the danger that any retaliation will descend into a horrible war.”
Describing the attack as “calibrated and deniable,” South Korea has little choice but to take its complaint to the United Nations, he said, although that is unlikely to have any impact on the North Korean regime and will not assuage public anger in the South.
The reports come a day after two North Korean agents posing as defectors were arrested for plotting to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking member of the North Korean Workers’ Party to defect to the South.
Commenting on the sinking of the Cheonan, Hwang said: “It’s obvious that Kim Jong-il did it. We know that he has been preparing for this kind of incident.”
Ryall writes that the North has denied involvement in the sinking, saying the government in Seoul is using the incident to whip up support ahead of elections in June.
Following the skirmish with South Korea in November, however, a skirmish in which a North Korean ship was set on fire and three sailors killed, The National Defence Commission, North Korea’s most powerful military body, threatened a “holy retaliatory war.”
North Korea’s use of human kamikaze torpedoes reflects an increased use of submarine and submersible craft for infiltration, terrorism and drug smuggling.
Recent technologies, such as Roper Resources’ Lyyn submarine visual enhancement system, allow for enhanced underwater surveillance and detection, which HSNW will be covering in an upcoming edition.
