Asia Times, November 2001 but STILL VALID:
"It is pertinent, therefore, to look at infiltration on the Korean peninsula, starting - but not ending - with the better-known and indubitably larger-scale efforts of the North against the South. Terrorism can take many forms. One of North Korea's hostile habits over the years has been to infiltrate its agents into South Korea. In 1968 a 31-man KPA commando unit, sent to assassinate the then South Korean president Park Chung-hee, got within a mile of the Blue House before even being challenged and gunned down. That didn't stop the North sending in a further 120 agents later that year, to the same fate. Nor is this old history. Remember those submarines? One night in 1996, an alert taxi driver - where were the coastguard? - saw something suspicious bobbing off a southern beach, like a giant dolphin. It turned out to be a 30 meter long Shark class KPA mini-submarine. A huge manhunt soon found 11 bodies, all shot in the head - presumably by their consent, to avoid capture: their colonel's pistol was still in its holster. Another 11 infiltrators were killed over the next fortnight, and two more seven weeks later, having nearly made it back to the DMZ overland. One agent was caught, and revealed all. Another may have got away. Kim Young-sam, the ROK's then president, went ballistic. His US allies feared some southern military retaliation, or jeopardy to the still new nuclear Agreed Framework and incipient engagement process. It took three months of pressure from Washington before Pyongyang, which had initially claimed engine trouble caused the sub to drift south - pull the other one, comrades - eventually stated its "deep regret" (the word apology never passes Northern lips), and pledged that "such an incident will not recur". Oh yeah? Fast forward two years to 1998. Another president, another submarine. This time caught in a southern fishing boat's nets. All nine on board were dead, in another group suicide. Weeks later, the body of a heavily armed KPA frogman washed up on another east coast beach. Later that year the ROK navy chased and sank a DPRK submersible assumed to be landing agents. But unlike Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung took a calm view of all these incidents - and persevered with his patient "Sunshine" policy."
Charming folks, just the type who will respond to Obama’s blandishments.
N. Korea is state version of al Qaeda. A master of terrorism before Muslim Jihadi came along. Their whole warfare is structured to be large effective terrorist force, also equipped with biochem weapons, nukes, and array of ballistic missiles.
Gone are large conventional Soviet-style NK military which had its heyday back in 70's or early 80's, which collapsing NK economy can no longer support and outmatched by growing S. Korean conventional military. They still maintain large military but much of them are no longer effective fighting force.