Crs Report for Congress

This chronology provides information on selective instances of North Korean provocations between June 1950 and 2003. The purpose of this report is to place current provocations in the context of past actions in order to better judge their significance and to determine changes in trends. The term “provocation” is defined to include: armed invasion, border violations, infiltration of armed saboteurs and spies, hijacking, kidnaping, terrorism (including assassination and bombing), threats/intimidation against political leaders, media personnel, and institutions, and incitement aimed at the overthrow of the South Korean government. Information is taken from South Korean and Western sources and typically is denied by the North Korean government. The most intense phase of the provocations was in the latter half of the 1960s, when North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of KoreaDPRK) staged a series of limited armed actions against South Korean and U.S. security interests. Infiltration of armed agents into South Korea was the most frequently mentioned type of provocation, followed by kidnaping and terrorism (actual and threatened). From 1954 to 1992, North Korea is reported to have infiltrated a total of 3,693 armed agents into South Korea, with 1967 and 1968 accounting for 20 percent of the total. Instances of terrorism …“