CHOSUN ILBO

KINA Completes Months-Long Investigation, Concludes "Undeniable" WPK Connections To Attempted Insurrection Over Prison Camp Liberation

---

(SEOUL) - Director Jeom Kwang-sun, one of the two Directors of the Korean Intelligence Agency (KINA), announced this Saturday of the conclusion of one of the KINA's largest investigative operations so far. Code-named Operation Red Rumble and started nearly eight months ago, following the liberation of Northern prisoner camps, the investigation primarily centered around the suspected involvement of Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials in an attempted insurrection, to stop the Korean National Army from liberating the camps. Though the camps were successfully liberated, public calls from WPK General-Secretary Choe Ryong-hae alluding to armed resistance were met with suspicion - and a degree of relief, as no Worker-Peasant Red Guards attempted to militarily stop the Army from accessing the camps. But the KINA wasn't convinced that WPK officials hadn't attempted an insurrection, instead believing that the WPK officials had tried and failed to start one.

This conclusion would be proven right. In a fully released report - 221 pages, including a limited number of redacted portions - the KINA concluded that there was an "undeniable, top-down" attempt to drum up armed resistance and violence against advancing Army forces, starting from the General-Secretary and the Politburo Presidium itself. The report specifies that "virtually every top-level WPK official - that being any WPK official of higher rank than a Lieutenant Mayor/Governor - was involved and included in the planning process to some degree," coming to the eventual conclusion that "the WPK, as an organization, dedicated its political and societal clout to an attempted rebellion."

As to why the attempt was unsuccessful? According to the report, the "self-preservation" of Worker-Peasant Red Guard field commanders prevented the Red Guards from actively deploying against the Army. "Although [Worker-Peasant Red Guard] high level commanders in Seoul and Pyongyang gave full-throated support to the WPK attempt at insurrection," the report states, "lower level field commanders and Red Guards disobeyed direct orders to deploy in combat formations." The report backs this claim with evidence of internal Red Guard purges of "disloyal" officers, and their replacements being "more directly amenable" to "potentially suicidal" military action against the Korean National Defense Forces.

The biggest announcement of the day, however, was the KINA issuing dozens of warrants for WPK officials both big and small - ranging from the Politburo Presidium themselves, to the provincial Governors/Mayors of every single province, to lower level political aides. The Heonbyeong, the KINA's police arm, will attempt to execute the warrants with assistance from police and special forces units, though the Heonbyeong reportedly is "expecting armed resistance."

first roll for success of the arrest; second is for future resistance/violence