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The Rangoon Bombing
How did a secret plan to overthrow a government and incite revolution backfire? This is exactly what happened in 1983 during the Rangoon bombing, when North Korea attempted to assassinate Chun Doo-hwan, the 5th president of South Korea. In 1983, South Korea was a struggling nation. The country was not only recovering from the heartbreak of a civilian airplane being shot down by communist forces, killing all on the flight, but was also plagued by widespread discontent with the repressive, military-style government employed by Chun Doo-hwan. North Korea saw this chaos and dissatisfaction as their chance to incite revolution and overthrow the government in South Korea. President Chun Doo-hwan was…
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A US soldier’s escape to North Korea and other examples
On the morning of July 18th, 2023, I woke up to a notification from the New York Times that stated North Korea Detains US Citizen After Unauthorized Border Crossing. A quick read of the article brought me some knowledge of the situation. An American citizen had illegally crossed the border into North Korea after being on a tour of the Joint Security Area. Updates later in the day revealed that the man was an American soldier: Private Travis T. King. The soldier was set to be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas after he had been arrested in South Korea on assault charges. Rather than boarding his plane at the airport,…
