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DIA: North Korea Planned Attacks on US Nuclear Plants
Free Beacon ^ | Dec 18, 2014 | Bill Gertz

Posted on 12/18/2014 8:11:16 PM PST by Jet Jaguar

Five commando units trained for strikes, sabotage

North Korea dispatched covert commando teams to the United States in the 1990s to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in a conflict, according to a declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report.

The DIA report, dated Sept. 13, 2004, reveals that five units of covert commandos were trained for the attacks inside the country.

According to the report, the “Reconnaissance Bureau, North Korea, had agents in place to attack American nuclear power plants.”

The document states that the North Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, the ministry in charge of the military, “established five liaison offices in the early 1990s, to train and infiltrate operatives into the United States to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in case of hostilities.”

“One of the driving forces behind the establishment of the units and infiltration of operatives was the slow progress in developing a multi-stage ballistic missile.”

North Korea is known to have at least two long-range missiles capable of hitting the United States, the Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, and the KN-08 road-mobile ICBM, which has not yet been flight tested.

The report indicates that power plants would be targeted for attack “in the event of hostilities between the United States and DPRK” – the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

The Reconnaissance Bureau is part of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces and is in charge of the estimated 60,000 North Korean special operations commandos.

The heavily redacted report is what is known as a raw intelligence report, consisting of information possibly provided to the United States by a defector or agent, or possibly obtained from electronic surveillance.

Reconnaissance Bureau commandos have undertaken terrorist operations in the past in South Korea and other locations.

But the DIA report is the first intelligence document indicating North Korea had planned attacks inside the United States and dispatched agents for the operations.

Disclosure of the report, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, comes amid threats by presumed North Korean agents to conduct September 11-style terrorist attacks against U.S. movie theaters.

The threats coincided with efforts by North Korea to prevent the showing Dec. 25 of the Sony Pictures film “The Interview,” a comedy involving a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The U.S. government determined that the massive hack targeting against Sony, which stole an estimated 100 terabytes of data including unreleased films, has been determined to be the work of North Korean hackers or those working for the regime of Kim Jong Un.

S.Y. Lee, a Department Homeland Security spokesman, declined to comment on the 2004 document.

A DHS official said the department is aware of the threat to attack movie theaters.

“We are still analyzing the credibility of these statements, but at this time there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States,” the official said.

The official said DHS will adjust its security procedures to protect Americans.

“This includes continued, regular information sharing with our state, local, federal and international partners, builds on ongoing work, such as enhanced protection at federal facilities,” the official said, adding that the public is encouraged to report suspicious activity to law enforcement agencies.

The FBI, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, said it was unaware of the DIA intelligence report on North Korean commando teams. In a July 9, 2012 letter, the FBI stated that it was unable to find any file records on North Korea’s Reconnaissance Bureau.

An FBI spokesman had no immediate comment. A DIA spokesman did not return emails seeking comment on the documents.

A second DIA document reveals that an American defector identified only as “Jackson” and as a former Air Force officer was working inside North Korea for the Reconnaissance Bureau.

The 1998 document stated that the officer had been “captured by North Korea” and was teaching North Koreans “U.S. Special Forces tactics, English [language], and interrogation techniques as chief of psychological operations studies at Madonghui Military College to North Korean seaborne snipers.”

The American also “visited the 52nd Seaborne Sniper Battalion to teach U.S. Special Forces tactics, American English, and interrogation techniques since before 1983,” the report said, noting that the training was carried out under the Reconnaissance Bureau.

The reference to “American English” is an indication the training may have been preparation for the future dispatch of North Korean snipers to the United States.

Mark Sauter, a security adviser to corporations and long-time North Korea watcher said the documents clearly raise alarms about whether North Korea could follow through on threats to conduct 9/11-style terrorist attacks.

“What they’ve done by the Sony hack is shown they’re certainly willing to attack a U.S. corporation,” said Sauter, who obtained the documents. “Now they’re threating a physical attack along the lines of 9/11 and it is certainly possible they could have agents inside the United States capable of carrying out terrorist attacks.”

“North Korean agents have committed terrorist attacks and kidnappings around the world,” said Sauter, a former Special Forces and infantry officer. “Why wouldn’t they send agents to the homeland of their biggest enemy?”

Sauter noted that it took the U.S. government weeks to determine that North Korea was capable of hacking a major company. “It would be a mistake for the government now to assume North Korea is not capable of launching a terrorist attack in the U.S.,” he said. “They may or may not have the desire to attack the U.S. homeland now or in the future, but there’s a good chance they have at least some capability.”

Bill Cowan, a former Army Special Forces officer, agreed and called the document an alarming disclosure.

“This demonstrates the North Koreans have capabilities most of us didn’t realize they had,” Cowan said. “It talks about them being on U.S. soil to carry out attacks and that takes the threat to a whole new level. And they’re probably still here.”

Past Reconnaissance Bureau operations included the bombing in Rangoon, Burma in 1983 in an attempt to kill then-South Korean President Chun Do-hwan. Three senior South Korean government ministers were killed in the attack.

Bureau commandos also carried out the attack on South Korea’s presidential Blue House in 1968 in an attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung Hee, father of current South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

The Reconnaissance Bureau also is in charge of covert operations to infiltrate South Korea through tunnels and seaborne insertion of intelligence personnel.

North Korean intelligence activities in the United States have been limited.

In 2003, the FBI arrested Korean-American businessman John Joungwoong Yai, who was identified as a North Korean agent. He pleaded guilty to financial charges and served two years in prison.

Yai was paid for sending reports to North Korea through China based on publicly available sources. He had been tasked by North Korean officials to locate a North Korean agent who had defected.

Documents in the case revealed plans by North Korea to try and plant one of its agents inside the U.S. government.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2004; 200409; abductions; amypascal; china; clooney; cyberwar; cyberwarfare; defector; georgeclooney; guardiansofpeace; hollywood; jackson; kidnappings; movietheater; movietheaters; nkorea; norks; northkorea; powerplantplots; powerplants; pyongyang; reconnaissancebureau; snipers; sony; theater; theaterplot; theaterplots; usaf; waronterror
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1 posted on 12/18/2014 8:11:17 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: TigerLikesRooster; LucyT

Ping


2 posted on 12/18/2014 8:11:45 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; Jet Jaguar; Defender2; ...

Active Duty ping.


3 posted on 12/18/2014 8:14:18 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar

Maybe now would be a good time for a pre emptive strike


4 posted on 12/18/2014 8:14:33 PM PST by garjog (Obama: bringing joy to the hearts of Terrorists everywhere.)
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To: All

Time for a new star on the flag. Do it, or shut up.


5 posted on 12/18/2014 8:15:02 PM PST by Klemper
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To: Jet Jaguar

There’s a part of me that wishes they had.*That* would be an act of war.And then we could take care of them once and for all.


6 posted on 12/18/2014 8:15:34 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Jimmy Carter;No Longer The Worst President In My Lifetime)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Sounds like another growing crisis that only Obama can “solve”.


7 posted on 12/18/2014 8:17:56 PM PST by cripplecreek (You can't half ass conservatism.)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Interesting. A little oddly put together but interesting.


8 posted on 12/18/2014 8:19:26 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Jet Jaguar

According to inside sources, the saboteurs were arrested and imprisoned until this year, when President Obama set them free, kissed them all on the butt, and used taxpayer money to set them up in the restaurant business.


9 posted on 12/18/2014 8:21:58 PM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Gay State Conservative

No part of me wishes it. I am not too far from a nuclear power plant. I visited Kiev about 10 years after the chernobyl accident. You could still see the results, and the people were still mourning those who died.


10 posted on 12/18/2014 8:23:56 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Jet Jaguar

We only need to empathize with them to better understand them. Aren’t open borders grand?


11 posted on 12/18/2014 8:24:10 PM PST by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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To: cripplecreek

I agree this seems weirdly good timing for our unpopular democrats who, coincidentally, are called weak on defense. Which just happens to be a voter priority.

Currently, I trust nothing our government says or asserts.


12 posted on 12/18/2014 8:24:41 PM PST by Noamie
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To: Jack Hammer

I laugh but sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me.


13 posted on 12/18/2014 8:24:55 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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Will the State Dept issue another film apology?

Perhaps the producers should be perp-walked to allay the concerns expressed by NK...


14 posted on 12/18/2014 8:25:40 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Now THAT would be Dangerous.


15 posted on 12/18/2014 8:26:53 PM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: garjog
Maybe now would be a good time for a pre emptive strike

Because of something that happened in the 1990s?

16 posted on 12/18/2014 8:28:11 PM PST by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc OÂ’Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: Jet Jaguar

North Korea is China’s lil beeotch.


17 posted on 12/18/2014 8:30:44 PM PST by b4its2late (A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Does anyone think that Zero knows or cares about all the various sleeper cells currently in the USA?

We have been just been intimidated by the Korean Dear Leader with what looks like complete impunity. The USA grows weaker daily under the rudderless ship of state with no one at the helm.

Maybe we should cut off current food “aid”going to the North that Kim diverts where it actually winds up feeding his military.


18 posted on 12/18/2014 8:32:14 PM PST by Sasparilla
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
No part of me wishes it. I am not too far from a nuclear power plant.

I,too,live fairly close to a nuke plant.Close enough,I suspect,to be within its evacuation zone.Yes,there very probably would have been a price to pay...possibly for South Koreans...for Alaskans...for Hawaiians...for those living near nuke plants.

But think for a minute about a world with no 9th Century knuckledraggers in charge in NK.

19 posted on 12/18/2014 8:32:40 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Jimmy Carter;No Longer The Worst President In My Lifetime)
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To: Jet Jaguar

HMMMMM....


20 posted on 12/18/2014 8:33:18 PM PST by traumer
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