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October 9 in 1983 didn¶t begin like any other normal Sunday in Rangoon. I had to work that
day as we had to prepare for a big ministerial meeting for foreign equipment purchases.

I was then working for Burma Irrigation and our office was at 8 ½ mile on Prome Road near
the Rangoon Airport. I arrived at the office about eight in that morning and I was in the
middle of doing some paperwork when the sonic boom of faint but definitely huge explosion
basically alerted me at about 9 or 10 in the morning.

Pondering what the hell that ka-boom of explosion was about I rushed out of office and saw a
crowd gathering in the outside corridor. Everyone there agreed the explosion was from a
distance and we all then went back to our work as if nothing had happened. Only back in the
office I saw the today newspaper ^

   on a desk and glimpsed the
news of South Korean President¶s visit on the front page. But honestly I didn¶t even vaguely
connect the loud explosion with Chun Doo-Hwan the visiting President from South Korea.

But that evening the rumors of his death from the bombing at the Martyrs¶ Mausoleum were
the talk of the tables at every teashop the popular gathering place for the idle Burmese men.
Only then I remembered the faint boom of explosion this morning. The news of the
assassination attempt and his lucky survival were in all the newspapers next day.

And within a couple of days the captures of North Korean Commandos were on the
newspaper front pages. And the sorry face of our dictator Ne Win seeing off Chun Doo-Hwan
sadly at the Airport was repeatedly broadcasted on the Government-controlled TV. As if our
government was deliberately apologizing to the people of South Korea.

Contrary to their usual ways of delaying tactics and secretive styles the newspapers and
Radio and TV, all government owned and operated, were amazingly frank and surprisingly
prompt in reporting immediately the unfolding events of the bombing and the aftermath. This
account is what I still remember and can recall of that tragic events in 1983 together with
some material I found from other sources almost 30 years later.

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Military-ruled Socialist Burma was the first leg of Chun Doo-Hwan¶s presidential tour
conceived and planned by Chun¶s Foreign Minister Lee Beom-Seok. A cornerstone of Lee¶s
policy was to establish ties between South Korea and the so-called Non-aligned nations and
thus Chu Doo-Hwan¶s 18 days six nation trip also included India and Sri Lanka. Burma was
one of the founding nations of Non-aligned movement.

The ill-fated journey in 1983 October was also designed to burnish Chun's image back home
as a true leader for he wasn¶t really popular among the people since seizing power by force
after the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-Hee and winning the indirect elections
in 1980. The blood of hundreds and hundreds of protesting students slaughtered by his troops
in the Kwangju Uprising in 1980 was still fresh in peoples¶ memory. Chun really did need a
break then.
On that faithful Sunday in quiet Rangoon the presidential motorcade was running a few
minutes late for the wreath-laying ceremony at the Martyrs' Mausoleum by the beaming
Shwe Dagon Pagoda. The rest of his high-power delegation was already there lining up
together with the Burmese hosts in the grand hall of the Mausoleum for his arrival when the
ear-splitting explosion ripped through the one-story building and blew up the roof skyward.
The ceiling completely collapsed and within few seconds the orderly scene of diplomatic
gathering was transformed into bloody mess. c

The huge blast apparently caused by the bombs hidden in the mausoleum's high ceiling had
killed 19 and seriously wounded 48. Among the 16 leading South Korean officials killed
there were Seo Seok-Jun the Deputy PM, Lee Bum-Suk the Foreign Minister, Kim Dong-
Hwi the Commerce Minister, and Suh Sang-Chul the Minister of Power resources.

Chun¶s motorcade was nearly there on the Mausoleum driveway when the bomb went off.
The presidential motorcade was turned away from the Mausoleum gate. The President cut
short the journey and flew back to Seoul with his wife that afternoon. He was seen off at the
airport by Burmese dictator General Ne Win himself. On the TV footage Ne Win appeared to
be apologizing him all the way onto the stairs of his Korean Airforce Boeing.

This translated extract (edited) is from the radio interview given to the 
  
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90 of Burmese Army Rangoon Command. His battalion then was assigned for the outer
security of Presidential delegation in Rangoon.


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All the army battalions in Rangoon and the neighboring townships were now mobilized and
two rifle battalions were heading straight for the large compound of North Korean Embassy
within an hour from the time the bombs went off at the Mausoleum.

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Hundreds of armed troops from Third and Fourth Burma Rifles had surrounded the North
Korean Embassy compound almost immediately after the bombing and prevented anyone
from entering or leaving the huge compound for weeks till the whole bombing thing was
unraveled by the army and the intelligence apparatus.

Radio and TV had started broadcasting to keep the people alert and alarm and to look out for
the terrorists from possibly North Korea. Thousands of people militia )
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villages of the neighboring townships were also mobilized as the largest manhunt in Rangoon
history was launched. This translated extract (edited) also is from the radio interview given to
the 
         !  ($ & %'  by ex-
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By then Burmese army had known very well that there were still two North Korean
Commandos at large near the area Zin-Mo was captured and concentrated their massive
search and capture operation involving the whole local populace on that small area by the
Rangoon River.

This translated extract (edited) also is from the radio interview given to the 

      !  ($ & %'  by Htun Lin who was then a
private serving in Third Platoon of First Company in IB 90 of Burmese Army Rangoon
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What Burmese kamikaze soldiers didn¶t know then was the two North Koreans, Captain Zin
Kee-Chu and Captain Kang Min-Chul, were already found once and Zin Kee-Chu was killed
and Kang Min-Chu had escaped during the struggle in which some of the police and the local
people who captured them were killed or wounded. This is what former private Htun Lin said
to the interviewer Ex-Lieutenant Thoung Nyein (now Ronnie Nyein of VOA Burmese) who
has anchored the    segment of VOA Burmese.
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By then the whole area had been completely blocked by the navy, army, and )
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River while the airforce helicopters were hovering above. And the wide area of paddy fields
by the Rangoon River was completely encircled by the thousands and thousands of armed
soldiers and armed people militia.

Encircling was so tight not even a field rat could crawl through the line of armed men
standing shoulder to shoulder in the green fields of young paddy.
They could have just shot and killed the lone North Korean now hopelessly trapped but the
order coming down from the very top of the army chain of command was absolutely clear.
They wanted him alive, not dead. And so the ten Burmese kamikaze soldiers were selected
and sent inside the siege-circle to catch Kang Min-Chul alive.

This translated extract (edited) also is from the radio interview given to the 

      !  ($ & %'  by ex-private Htun Lin who
was then part of the select section of Burmese soldiers sent in to grab Kang Min-Chul alive.


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Apart from losing his left hand below the elbow and various flesh wounds all over his body
caused by the flying shrapnel of his own hand-grenade young Kang Min-Chul had recovered
fast from his wounds and ready to be interrogated by the notorious Burmese Military
Intelligent Services (MIS) within few weeks.

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The leader and the eldest of the North Korean Commandos Major Zin-Mo might be the
toughest nut to crack for the Burmese interrogators-cum-torturers of MIS. He had already lost
both arms, left leg, and one eye but he wouldn¶t open his mouth other than saying his name
and rank in the North Korean People¶s Army.

No amount and frequency of water-boarding and other brutal tortures could loosen his tongue
as he was willing to sacrifice his useless life for his motherland and the Great Leader Kim Il-
Sung. He already tried once by blowing himself up when the Burmese boatmen tried to
capture him in the waters of Pazundaung Creek.

But the young Kang was a totally different story. On his hospital bed he broke down a few
times and cried quietly as if he was emotionally affected by the care he received from the
Burmese doctors and nurses. He finally spilled the beans and coughed so much that MIS
didn¶t even need Zin Mo¶s confessions anymore. This is the translated and edited extracts of
the summary statement of his confessions to the MIS interrogators.

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As Burmese had correctly guessed the involvement of North Korean agents and immediately
sent two Burma Rifles battalions and quickly sealed the North Korean Embassy on Prome
Road the Commando team was forced to abandon their original escape plan of returning to
the embassy.
Their Plan B for the escape was another North Korean cargo ship now waiting for them at the
area where the Rangoon River meets the sea. The sea is only about 20 miles from the site
and so they started their journey through the gauntlets of Burmese troops and the
paramilitaries now quickly mobilized and eagerly searching the areas for them.
Burmese are dark-skinned brown people. So the fair-skinned yellow Koreans stood out in the
Burmese crowd. Very soon within few hours in the daylight they were spotted by the public
and the mob attacks had followed them wherever they went. And finally they were forced
into taking the waterways towards the sea and eventually one was captured dead and other
two alive. This is the continuation of Captain Kang Min-Chul¶s confession to the Burmese
MIS.
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After a secret show trial inside Insein Prison Burmese promptly hanged tight-lipped Major
Zin-Mo. But Captain Kang Min-Chul was given only a life sentence. According to the MIS
officers handling him our old Ne Win had a strange affection towards the young North
Korean and decided to let him live. Ne Win had also refused to send him to South Korea
against Chun Doo-Hwan¶s repeated demands.
And so our Kang Min-Chul had lived comfortably almost forever in a specially-built prison
inside the infamous Insein Prison in Rangoon till his death.

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Kang Min-Chul was once the longest-serving prisoner in Burma. He enjoyed the rare
privilege of living in a small private house with a tiny garden surrounded by high barbed-wire
fence. He learned to speak Burmese fluently and nearly lost his mother tongue. He became a
Buddhist and meditated daily. As North Korea had always refused to acknowledge his
existence and South Korea would hang him for his terrorist acts he had nowhere else to go
but stay in the Burmese prison.
In 2006 Chung Hyung-Keun, a member of South Korea's Grand National Party and a former
employee of South Korean intelligence agency KCIA, sponsored a bill to bring Kang Min-
Chul to South Korea. South Koreans had finally dropped all their demands to punish Kang
Min-Chul many years after his horrible crime. But it was too little too late for the heroic son
of both Koreas.
Kang Min-Chul died of liver cancer on May 18, 2008. Hepatitis is so widespread in Burma
once one had been to a prison one would get the dreaded liver disease and the painful
sclerosis would follow and eventually the fatal liver cancer. He was almost 50 and never
married.

On his hospital bed dying he confessed to a caring-nurse that he had never fallen in love but
he wanted to so that he knew what love was before he was gone forever. According to the
same nurse the last word he murmured before he took his last breath was ^
   ±
mother.

May his tortured soul rest in peace!

************************************************************