hankyoreh

By Park Tae-woo, staff reporter

In the 1970s, a naval intelligence squad infiltrated major North Korean facilities to carry out special operations. It had three parts: the Sweet Potato Squadron, the Pigeon Formation, and the Lion Formation. Sweet Potato was the mother ship that ferried Pigeon and Lion into open waters. Pigeon was a submersible that crossed the Northern Limit Line and carried Lion up to the destination. The special agents of Lion then carried out the infiltration. Pigeon waited for Lion to complete its operation and brought it back to Sweet Potato.

Thirteen members from Pigeon filed suit in Seoul Administrative Court after having a claim rejected in July 2011 by the committee reviewing compensation for special operation agents. The members, including one identified by the surname Gwak, had each worked one to two years for the intelligence squad between 1979 and 1994, and claimed that they received training on North Korean infiltration and intelligence gathering while they were there.

But the court ruled that while the Lion members who carried out the operations could be compensated, the members of Pigeon could not, as they had only provided escort support. Judge Park Tae-jun of the court’s 12th administrative division explained that special operations “are espionage and intelligence collection activities that come with a high degree of risk, and it is impossible to view the Pigeon members as having performed any special operations beyond escorting Lion members.”

The Pigeon members claimed that they were tasked with placing bombs on vessels and in facilities. But the court, citing the Pigeon operation manual and testimony from officials who worked at the unit, said it was “impossible to conclude that the Pigeon members performed any unique duties or that they received the same training as the Lion members.”

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